Happy Mother's Day!

From all of us at Earth Cubs, we want to wish you a very happy Mother’s Day! You’re doing an awesome job and we hope you get spoilt rotten today.

We wanted to highlight some amazing mothers from the animal kingdom and celebrate their mothering skills. From spiders to polar bears; these mothers really do go out of their way to look after their offspring!

What’s for dinner mum?

Polar bear mums will go 4-8 months without having a meal whilst pregnant and nursing their cubs. When they first leave the den to go hunting the mum will often carry the tired offspring on her back.

That’s fowl

This hoopoe bird protects its eggs by covering them in a foul-smelling secretion! This helps to stop predators snatching and eating the eggs!

Mama’s boy

After giving birth, Orcas won’t sleep for a whole month to keep a close eye out for trouble. Having a mum also increases the son’s chances of survival. The mother will continue to look after their young as they go into adulthood and beyond.

Not a fruitless trip

The Strawberry Poison Dart Frog lays her eggs on the rainforest floor before carrying each tadpole to individual pools of water; these could be high up in the rainforest canopy!

The ultimate sacrifice

The deep-sea octopus will guard its eggs for 4 ½ years, not moving from the same spot. They will squirt water on the eggs to bath them with oxygen.

Wolf pack

The Wolf spider carries the egg sac with her until the eggs hatch. All the babies stay on her back until they are ready to face the world. This could be weeks! If one falls off, she will wait until it climbs back on again before hunting again!

Plenty to go around

The tailless tenrec of Madagascar has an average of 15-20 babies. That’s a lot of mouths to feed! Some females can have up to 29 nipples!

Happy Mother's Day!