moms

well moms of the animal kingdom that is

i saw a show called growing up wolf (they have different ones, growing up bear, etc) on animal planet on monday. this sanctuary raises wolves (i guess) to re-populate the species. i didn't see the very beginning so i don't quite understand the next part. a few wolves gave birth (they had cameras in the dens) and the humans came in and took a few (six) of the pups. the intention was to hand raise them for four months then return the pups to the pack. the only reason i can see to do that is so these six wolves are used to humans. the females that bore the litters were artificially inseminated. the initial human contact may facilitate later contact (well that is my theory).

anyway, this sanctuary was run by peggy callahan whom i believe is some type of biologist. her husband is also a biologist and helped to hand raise the pups. they have a very young daughter and she was around playing with the pups as well. THE BEST part was they had 26 or 29 (i have forgotten) dogs around that ALSO helped to raise the pups. even the male dogs took over surrogate mothering duties. (the dogs were all rescued and most of them were shepherds but not all. even saw one dog in the pack with three legs!). when those little tiny wolf-lings started to howl in their little tiny wolf-ling voices it brought a tear to my eye. (toward the ending of the show when the pups are about four months old and are in a pen outside, the pack of dogs is hanging around the pen and peggy comes out and starts to howl then all of the pups AND dogs start to howl. WOW WOW and WOW)

little by little the pups were weaned away from living indoors with the family eventually living outdoors all of the time. soon thereafter, they were put in an enclosed pen next to the huge enclosure the pack lived in. the dominant female, rosalind (a white wolf who was NOT one of the mothers) was a worry to peggy. she (rosalind) had killed her own father to seal her status as alpha female in the pack. maya (i have forgotten her name, but it did begin with an m) was one of the mothers whose pups were initially taken away. she cried daily for the return of her pups and when they were placed in the adjoining pen she went nuts (happily that is). the next day the pups were CAUTIOUSLY released into the pack enclosure under the watchful eyes of the staff of the facility. immediately maya ran to her pups and began mothering them. everyone was afraid rosalind might kill the pups. she came over and disciplined all of the pups grabbing them in her mouth but NEVER biting any of them. they immediately knew who the alpha female was and took the proper submissive actions. as it turned out rosalind took over mothering and poor maya was disciplined every time she tried to attend to her pups. when a pup went near her she would sneer and chase it off. it was rather sad BUT THEN, after a bit of time, rosalind had her hands (or paws as it were) full and every once in a while a pup would sneak off to it's real mother, maya. she and the pups were able to bond too.

yesterday, i found this story in the new york times One Thing They Aren't: Maternal and i learned a thing or two. most of it wasn't new but a few tidbits were

you MUST see the photographs accompanying the article. amazing! they're rather reminiscing of the lovely mr shock or the equally lovely mr shakespeare

Oh, mothers! Dear noble, selfless, tender and ferocious defenders of progeny all across nature's phylogeny: How well you deserve our admiration as Mother's Day draws near, and how photogenically you grace the greeting cards that we thrifty offspring will send in lieu of a proper gift.
Here is a mother guinea hen, trailed by a dozen cotton-ball chicks. Here a mother panda and a baby panda share a stalk of bamboo, while over there, a great black eagle dam carries food to her waiting young. We love you, Mom, you're our port in the storm. You alone help clip Mother Nature's bloodstained claws.
But wait. That guinea hen is walking awfully fast. In fact, her brood cannot quite keep up with her, and by the end of the day, whoops, only two chicks still straggle behind. And the mama panda, did she not give birth to twins? So why did just one little panda emerge from her den? As for the African black eagle, her nest is less a Hallmark poem than an Edgar Allan Poe. The mother has gathered prey in abundance, and has hyrax carcasses to spare. Yet she feeds only one of her two eaglets, then stands by looking bored as the fattened bird repeatedly pecks its starving sibling to death. ..........

(photo/illustration: lou beach from nyt article)