DEAR MOM - THANKS!
Mother’s Day is around the corner and despite by best intentions, the gifts I give Mom never really expresses how grateful I am that she didn’t kill me and eat me like so many other animal moms out there! So, in honor of Mother’s Day, I’m going to summarize some ways that animal moms sacrifice for their offspring. Rabbit moms rip the fur from their underbelly to make a cozy nest for their babies. The Suriname toad gives birth right out of holes in her back. Elephant moms are pregnant for 22 months. If that isn’t bad enough… then she gives birth to the biggest baby on earth averaging 200 pounds. Monkey moms get to carry their kids most everywhere they go. The little buggers hold onto her hair. Perhaps the worst is the orangutan who never puts the baby down and nurses them to age 6 or 7 years old. Hornbill moms are cavity nesters. They lay their eggs in tree hollows and then she walls herself and the eggs into the tree using her own feces (a fancy and less offending word that poop). She stays in there, incubating the eggs for two months without feeding. Then there is the octopus mom. She will lay over 50,000 eggs and spend the next 40 days pushing currents of oxygenated water over the little buggers. She doesn’t leave them even to eat… except her own arm. Shucks, she has eight of them! So, for all you Moms, thanks for all of the sacrifices!
