Mother's Day is Universal

[Guest guest]

Cross Posted for Carney Anne, Vegetarian Network of Dallas member. Thank you so much, C.A. MargaretCarney Anne Chester wrote:In light of the fact that Sunday is Mother's Day, here is some information about the painstaking and devoted parenting skills of several different species of animals. Pigs: Pigs have the cognitive ability to be quite sophisticated. Even more so than dogs and certainly three-year-old humans. When living among humans, piglets learn their names within two to three weeks and respond when called. Contrary to popular belief, pigs do not sweat and are also fastidiously clean creatures. The bond between piglets

and their mother is very strong. Before giving birth, the pregnant sow builds a large nest for farrowing, or birthing, her piglets and for protecting them after they're born. In nature, pregnant sows are very particular about the location and quality of this nest. A mother may walk three to six miles before finding a sufficiently isolated and protected spot, and she can take up to ten hours to build her nest. Once the piglets are born, mother and children remain in the nest for up to two weeks. After this period, the family leaves the nest and returns to the rest of the herd. Around this time, play becomes an important part of the piglets' lives. Beginning with play fighting, their activities later include chasing, frolicking, and exploring their environment. The piglets are integrated into the herd and, over the course of approximately 12 weeks, they are gradually weaned and begin eating solid food. Elephants:The TLC that these

mammoth mothers bestow on their babies is among their most engaging qualities. Always ready to give an affectionate caress, a gentle nudge in the right direction, or a cool bath to help their babies beat the heat, doting moms maintain constant touch with their young ones, never allowing them to stray too far from their side. Mothers even stay in touch with their adult kids and enjoy close relationships with their daughters that can last up to 50 years. Cows: For cows and their calves, it's love at first sight. The first minutes after birth are spent developing a bond that will last a lifetime. Throughout life, mother and child maintain social contact and regularly enjoy each other's companionship. Their attachment and affection for each other is so deep that if they are forced apart, they both suffer severe stress. Moms have been known to escape their enclosures and travel for miles looking for their calves. Dolphins: Dolphins are known

for graceful synchronized swimming, but dolphin mothers and their babies also synchronize their breathing for the first few weeks following the babies' birth. These dedicated moms may nurse their young for up to 10 years and will also mentor less experienced females by allowing them to babysit as practice for when they have babies of their own. Caring for a newborn requires a lot of sleepless nights, as any new parent knows. But scientists now have found that for some whales and dolphins, taking care of baby means going without sleep not for hours or days, but an entire month. Cheetahs:Let's hear it for single moms! These lightning-fast felines have their paws full caring for their cubs all on their own. Not only does mom protect her children from predators while she is nursing them, she also hunts for them from the time they are weaned until they are 14 to 18 months old. Overly active offspring can make the task of hunting even harder: Cubs often scare

hunted animals away with their animated antics, leaving mom so worn out that she sometimes falls asleep in the middle of a hunt. Chickens: Chickens form strong family ties. A mother hen begins bonding with her chicks before they are even born. She will turn her eggs as many as five times an hour and softly cluck to her unborn chicks, who will chirp back to her and to one another from within their shells. Once chicks hatch, devoted moms use their wings to shield their babies from predators and have been known to refuse to leave their nests during a fire if they have newly hatched peeps. After her chicks have hatched, the devoted mother dotes over her brood, teaching them what to eat, how to drink, where to roost, and how to avoid enemies. Young chicks separated from their mother huddle together at night for a couple of months, eventually lining themselves up on a perch and roosting like adults. Chickens are intelligent animals and

good problem-solvers. More advanced than young children, chickens possess the ability to understand that an object, when taken away and hidden, nevertheless continues to exist. And their communication skills are so developed that they use separate alarm calls depending on whether a predator is traveling by land or in the sky. The childhood taunt "chicken" is inaccurate when it suggests cowardice. In the wild, a mother hen will threaten other hens who come within 20 feet of her chicks. Chickens will also fight with eagles and foxes to protect their kin. Geese: Geese are fiercely loyal animals. Unlike many other animals, geese choose their mates and stay with them "until death do they part." A goose will only seek out a new partner when his or her original mate has died, and some will refuse to mate again. This is particularly interesting since geese can live to be 25 years old. These birds are also very protective of their loved ones. If a goose's mate or gosling becomes sick or injured, she will often refuse to leave her ailing family member. This protective instinct takes priority over her own survival; she will remain by her loved one's side even if winter is approaching and the other geese in her group are heading south. Emotionally, a goose will respond to the loss of her mate or unhatched eggs by secluding herself from others and taking the time to mourn. Nobel laureate Konrad Lorenz found that geese express grief in a manner similar to young children when he wrote that "the eyes sink deep into their sockets, and the individual has an overall drooping experience, literally letting the head hang." Northern Fur Seals: Human mothers tuned in to Channel Mom may find themselves responding to anybody's child when they hear someone calling the M word, but fur seals never make this mistake. Fresh from

foraging for food, moms have to find their young quickly in a sea of hundreds—or possibly thousands—of seals, so both mother and pup depend on their uncanny powers of vocal recognition to find one another. Both will call out and answer, responding selectively to one another until they are reunited. Turkeys: After mating, the female turkey prepares a nest under a wooded bush to lay her eggs, incubating as many as 18 at a time. The chicks hatch approximately one month later. Because her babies are unable to fly for the first two weeks of life, the mother will roost on the ground with them during this period. Within just a few days of hatching, poults (young turkeys) instinctively tag along behind their mother for protection and food. During their first few weeks of life, poults will panic when separated from their mother. The poult emits a loud "peep peep" to which the mother

responds by yelping and running towards her child. Mother turkeys defend their young against predators, including raccoons, foxes, snakes, owls, and hawks. Poults continue to live with their mother for four or five months, and during this time, the mother-child bonding through vocal and visual signals is important to the poult's normal social development. The signals communicated early on facilitate learning of important social activities, as turkeys are social animals who prefer to live and feed together in flocks.

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