3 Terrible Mothers In The Animal Kingdom

Oh they’re bad!!!

The title sums up this simple article enough for us to jump right in.

The quokka is a marsupial from down under. Mostly populating Rottnest island south west of mainland Australia. They are very cute and most aren’t afraid of humans. They are a huge tourist attraction and the locals are sick of them because they randomly wonder into businesses begging for food.

But how can you not love those adorable face? (unless they bite you, and they will bite you if you try to play pet the kitty with them)

Quokka mothers can get pregnant right after giving birth to their joey and the embryo of the second baby can stay in stasis and not develop until the mother quokka looses the first baby. If the first baby grows up successfully the second (backup) embryo is simply reabsorbed by the mother.

But fear not little back up embryo! Your mama has you covered.

Quokkas have a habit of tossing out their joeys from their pouch in the face of a predator and then skedaddling out of there. Leaving the helpless under developed baby on the ground as a bribe to slow down the predator so it can make its escape. They already have a back up so who cares right?

Imagine a human mother did that in the face of a robber. Now the poor guy has no money, a fake gun, and a new mouth to feed. Imagine the confusion.

If you were a latchkey kid and you resent your parents for it, I promise you won’t feel so bad after this one.

Harp seals mothers seem to have conflicted feelings about their own children. They want to make the kid because omg that’s so fun, but they don’t want to take care of them too much but omg they’re so cute, but I got to go now, bye!

Harp seal mothers feed their babies nonstop, not moving or feeding themselves for 12 days straight by which time they’ve had enough of this shenanigans. “I have to take care of myself before I can take care of you” kind of deal.

The mothers would leave their babies there alone by themselves and they would go feed. Many animals do this by the way, many birds do this, fish, big cats, you name it. But our seal friend will never come back. The seal pup is extremely underdeveloped and is left there by it self all of the sudden after 12 days and there they will stay for almost 45 more days before they grow big enough from their fat reserve to go hunt for themselves. Until then they are just a juicy meal waiting to be gobbled up by any polar bear that would happen to walk by. “You get this one little ones, mommy’s gonna relax and have herself a coke.” (Because polar bears drink coca cola)

I understand why the seal would do this. Nature is brutal and perhaps the environment doesn’t allow sentimental mothers to survive. There must be enough of these harp seal babies that do survive and make it on their own at 2 months old to populate the next generation. But the brutality of it still needs to be addressed.

Tasmanian devils are infamous for being ferocious and violent. They have a devilish scream and they want a piece of everyone, constantly.

If you had a childhood like a Tasmanian devil you would go through life screeching like a possessed hell spawn too.

Tasmanian devil mothers can have a litter up to 50 little adorable pups. “Wow!” you say, “How does the mother feed all those kids?”

Well the short answer is, they don’t. Tasmanian devils only have 4 nipples for babies to latch onto. Yes, 46 of them are fated to starve to death immediately after birth. Why you ask? I’m not really sure. I can’t wrap my head around this one honestly. I guess it’s just suffering for suffering’s sake.

The animal kingdom is full of amazing parents. From the emperor penguins to silver back gorillas to sea horse males, the list goes on. Good or bad, life continues to thrive on our beautiful planet.

We as humans enjoy the benefit of having parents who are instinctively nurturing to their own children far beyond their own understanding. Every time my daughter acts like such a brat I swear I don’t want to parent anymore,but I always calm down quickly and go back to loving her because she’s the most precious thing in the world and I just can’t help myself.

So next time your mother says something that makes your eyes roll to the back of your skull, remember. At least you’re not one of the 46 Tasmanian devil pups on the ground squirming in embryonic fluid until you stop moving forever. Seriously what is the point of that?! Someone please help me understand this nonsense!

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