Calf's Hoof Bloody After Being Run Over, Protective Mom Refuses To Budge as Rescuers Help
In the biblical book of Job, ostriches don’t get a very good rap for their motherly care. Chapter 39 states, “She leaves her eggs to the earth and lets them be warmed on the ground, forgetting that a foot may crush them and that the wild beast may trample them.
“She deals cruelly with her young, as if they were not hers. Though her labor be in vain, yet she has no fear, because God has made her forget wisdom and given her no share in understanding.”
Not every animal mother, though, is so quick to abandon her young. Some matronly critters are downright devoted to their offspring.
Kicheche Camps, a series of safari getaways located in Kenya’s Maasai Mara National Reserve, released a YouTube video showing a dramatic scene with a mother giraffe. It opens with a towering female giraffe peering off into the bush as her baby snuggles up to her towering legs.
It doesn’t take too long to see why: A pack of lions crouch in the bushes and splay on the grass, waiting patiently for an easy meal.
Eventually, five lions stroll casually toward the giraffe and her baby — and get fiercely rebuffed. The mama giraffe stamps her feet, lurching her huge body toward the hungry felines, and that scares the lions off.
A mother bear showed equal care for a cub in 2016 when it was dealing with decidedly human risks. Global News reported that a professional tornado chaser named Ricky Forbes saw a bear cub get stuck on the highway.
That might have spelled doom for the small mammal, because tall concrete dividers blocked off the shoulder. However, the mother bear leaned over when her baby got to the barrier, seized him by the scruff of his neck, and lifted him over neat as you please.
“It was pretty breathtaking,” Forbes said. “You usually don’t see something like that, so we got the camera ready just in case something happened.”
Indeed, something animally amazing occurred in 2016, but it happened in a strange setting. Animal Aid Unlimited, India released a YouTube video showing the group’s rescue of a young calf.
The tiny creature had been struck by a motor vehicle. It lay curled into a ball, one of its hooves obviously injured and bleeding.
Someone had tied a rag around the hurt limb, trying to stop the blood from flowing. Yet when rescuers hefted the little animal, something happened.
The mother cow, who had been standing behind her calf, popped her head up, obviously panicked. She trotted after the men, nuzzling up against her baby to make sure it was OK.
Indeed, the mother refused to leave her calf’s side the entire while. But she needn’t have worried.
Rescuers loaded her into a truck trailer and took her along with her calf. Fortunately, the story has a happy ending.
The video showed the little calf frisking and jumping after its recovery. The best part, though? The little animal’s mom was right beside it, protective as ever.
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