Motherly Love

We hope all of the mothers out there had an amazing Mother’s Day! While Oatland Island Wildlife Center had their Fairy and Gnome Festival the day before Mother’s DDDay, we saw all the incrediblDaye families out and about enjoying the day and wanted to share some amazing moms of the animal world!

Cougar Moms: Parenting is hard, but teaching 2-4 cougar kittens to hunt at once must be exhausting! Cougar moms are incredible mothers. The males only hang around for a few days after mating with the mother so she does it solo. Pregnancy only lasts for about three months, but once the kittens are born, the real fun begins! The mother cares for herself and her litter for about two months, nursing her babies every few hours 24/7. Once the babies are big enough, these incredible mothers will teach the babies everything they need to know about being a cougar, from climbing to hiding and stalking their prey, and even how to clean themselves. Cougars moms stay with their young for about two years, and soon after her children “leave the nest,” she will mate with another male and start all over again. Female cougars spend about 75% of their lives pregnant or caring for young. They are truly amazing mothers!

Wolf Spiders Moms: We know. We know. They’re spiders; how could they be good moms? Glad you asked. Wolf spiders are actually amazing mothers! Wolf spider males will attract females by doing a dance. Once he has her near, they mate, and the female produces an egg sac, which she carries with her on her back while the male goes off to do whatever it is that male wolf spiders do! The females carry the egg sac on her belly until it hatches (which can take several months depending on the weather). When the weather is nice enough, more than 100 baby spiders can be born, all of whom climb on the mother's back and rely on her for care! This will last for several weeks, with the mother stopping and waiting for each baby to climb back on if they fall off. She carries them with her as she finds food, even hunting with 100 babies on her back. She allows the babies to feel from her hunts, and when it’s time, the babies will go off on their own, climbing down from her back one last time! 

Opossum Moms: Opossums are the only marsupials in North America, which means that they have a pouch that their babies live in! When opossum babies are born, they are the size of jelly beans. These tiny pink babies crawl their way into the pouch where the opossum mom nurses them for weeks. Opossums are the only mammal in the world to have an odd number of nipples (13 in case you were wondering), which means they can have up to 13 babies at a time inside their pouch! Once inside the pouch, the baby will latch onto the nipple, and its mouth will seal over the nipple, attaching itself to her without moving for a few months. Their only jobs are to grow big and strong! The pouch isn’t large enough to contain the babies for long so they end up carrying their babies on their backs after they are large enough to detach from the mother. That’s a lot of babies to carry around! Opossum moms will spend the next few months foraging for food, hiding from predators, and protecting her babies, all while they hold onto her back! 

Elephant Moms: We know that human pregnancy is a doozy! Nine months of big changes to a person's body is no joke! But did you know that Elephant moms have a gestational period of TWENTY TWO months? Imagine being pregnant for two years! Whew! Elephant moms grow their giant babies for two years, they are also fiercely protective of that baby. When a baby elephant is born, it is over 3 feet tall and weighs in at over 200 pounds. These big babies are pretty helpless and can’t even use their trunks properly yet! The mother elephant nurses her baby for around six years (with the baby starting to eat other foods as well after about 6 months) and will stay with her young in their familial herd for 14-16 years. The female elephants may never leave, spending their whole lives with their mothers in a herd. The males, once reaching sexual maturity, usually go find a bachelor herd until they are old enough to find mates.

We hope you all had a happy Mother's Day and can’t wait to see you on the trails! If you are still looking for a gift to give your mom, consider getting her a membership to Oatland Island! https://www.friendsofoatland.org/membership