I remember that faithful day as a young school boy in my teens. Usually, when I returned from school, all the young boys in the neighborhood will assemble on the playground for good football match. I did not take part in the game because of some minor health challenge I had at that moment.
I sat close to the field, enjoying the game that was played by my friends. Surdenly something took my attention away from the field and I started focusing on the native hen that was passing by my side with her little chick. The little chick was so beautiful that I started admiring it's beauty and the bond between the mother hen and her chick.
The story changed when the ball was played towards my directions with great speed, and little did I know, the chick will be hit by the fast moving ball. The moment the chick was hit by the ball, I saw the mother hen attacking the ball with so much aggression repeatedly to protect her chick. But unfortunately, the chick died at the spot.
For hours I saw the mother hen staying close to her dead chick, trying to use her beak to stand the chick up. But her effort was useless as her little baby was lifeless. The mother hen created an emotional scene, as the bird lay low beside the chick and refusing to accept that it was dead.
This bring us to the bond between mother animals and their babies. According to National Geographic, Animals share a unique and wonderful relationship with their offspring. Be it elephants with their calves, or bears and leopards with their cubs, the deep parent-child bond in these animals is certainly special and makes us look at them from a different lens.
Animals like the female slot bear, lioness, elephant, hippopotamus, eagles, etc, can be so aggressive when rising their young once. Sloth bears take the responsibility a notch above and are even known to ward off tigers in the forests. What makes their relationship with the cubs even more unique is that out of all the eight known bear species, Sloth bears are the only ones known to carry their offspring on their back. Sometimes, a single lioness can take care of 5 to 6 cubs all by herself in the first few weeks of childbirth, before introducing them to their father and the rest member of her pride.
Very few male animals bond6 with their babies, the African Iion are known to be good fathers to their cubs, but sometimes may kill the babies to mate with their mother. Today, animals offspring face looming threats due to man-made causes, just like the case of the hen and her chick I begin the article with. Sometimes wen these animals goes out for hunting, the babies are exposed to various hazards such as predators and encounters with people. These animals add beauty to our world, so there is need for us to keep them alive
This article captured different photos of animals and the bond they share with their babies.
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