weird & wonderful
Compiled by RAMA RAMESH
Milk is good
The Caribbean Flamingo not only has the distinction
of being the brightest member of the family, but also the
best parent. Both mother and father flamingos feed their
chicks with bright red milk to nourish them. This milk
is produced and secreted from a pouch in the digestive
tract. The milk is rich in proteins and fat and provides
nutrients for the chicks until their bills are ready to eat
solid food. While the milk provides the chicks with the
characteristic pink colour, it also drains the colour from
the parents, leaving them looking pale.Bringing them up
togetherThe seals that bask
on the shores of the
Galapagos Islands
have developed a fail-
proof parenting technique. The key, it turns out, is in
identifying a prime location complete with a nursery
pool that could function as a crèche. The females give
birth to pups on a beach, astutely guarded by a male
seal. The toddlers, in the meantime, are taken care of by
the female seals working on a rotation basis. During this
time, the young seals not only play and have fun, but also
learn basic hunting skills.An intensive parenting schedule
The Strawberry Poison Dart Frog deserves a prize if
there was one for ‘extraordinary parenting’. Hardly
bigger than a fingernail, what they achieve is nothing
short of amazing. After the eggs hatch, it’s a busy time
for mom and dad. Left together, the tiny frogs tend to
eat each other up. The solution? Separate the unruly
kids as far away from each other as possible. And mom
does exactly that, transporting every single baby frog to
different separate pools. For the next 50 days, she visits
each pool, depositing an unfertilized egg in each as food
for every baby, while Dad guards the entire territory
throughout this period. Whew!It’s not just our moms and dads
who worry ceaselessly about
us. There are many dedicated
parents across fauna that are
nothing short of amazing. This
month let’s take a peek at the
outstanding parental care shown
by a wide range of creatures.A Herculean task
Male Adelie penguins travel across long
stretches of ice to find bare rocks to make
nests, as their eggs would perish if laid on
the frozen snow. A nest is built on piles of
stones and rocks, and the male has to make sure that
neighbours don’t sneak in to steal the rocks for their own
nests! After the eggs are laid, mom and dad take turns
keeping them warm. That’s no easy task because leaving
the eggs exposed for 5
minutes means that they’ll
never hatch. But there’s a
catch here — should a dad
not return or go missing, the
mom abandons the nest in
double quick time. It’s an
‘all or nothing’ strategy as
the mom knows all too well
that she can never raise her
chicks alone in the freezing
cold Arctic.It’s a long sacrifice
The Giant Pacific Octopus is the biggest species in the
world and a terror to thousands of marine creatures.
When it comes to her own babies though, the octopus
goes all mushy. A female lays a massive batch of 100,000eggs and dedicates her life to tending them. She tenderly
caresses the eggs to keep them clean and supply oxygen.
The octopus is so occupied in this job that for six months
until they hatch she doesn’t eat or do anything else.
Amazed? A deep sea octopus was found to be guarding
her eggs for four years and five months without eating
anything during the entire time!