Tag Archives: mothers

Newborn Marsupial Crawls into Mother’s Pouch for the First Time: Heartwarming Moment Captured

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r_8y0eOrVbI" title="Watch newborn marsupial footage

A newly photographed newborn marsupial, weighing less than a grain of rice, is seen crawling towards its mother’s pouch for the first time. This remarkable observation highlights the unique gestation and development process of marsupials.

Unlike placental mammals, which give birth to more developed young, marsupials experience a brief gestation period before their young must navigate to the mother’s pouch to continue their growth.

According to Brandon Menzies from the University of Melbourne, this remarkable process remains largely unknown for many of Australia’s rare marsupials, even for those in captivity. Menzies and his team care for several hundred fat-tailed dunnarts (Smithopsis crassicaudata) and aim to work with Colossal Biosciences to potentially resurrect the extinct Tasmanian tiger.

Despite establishing the colony decades ago and monitoring female fertility closely, the exact details of how marsupials give birth and the young’s attachment to the teats have never been documented before now.

Menzies explained that this phenomenon is difficult to observe due to the lack of pregnancy tests for this species, their nocturnal habits, and the fact that births occur at night. During a 12 to 24-hour period, a swarm of newborns is born, taking just 30 minutes to reach the pouch.

Adult Fat-tailed Dunnarts

Emily Scicluna

In 2024, researchers noted blood in an enclosure. An examination revealed tiny newborns, just 5 milligrams each, making their way towards their mother’s pouch.

“We observed the pouch waving, crawling, and wriggling,” Menzies stated. “It’s a freestyle swim type of crawl, similar to a commando crawl.”

Young Dunnarts in Their Mother’s Pouch

Emily Scicluna

Realizing this was a groundbreaking moment, Menzies captured 22 seconds of footage before carefully returning the mother to her enclosure. The team believes gravity plays a crucial role in guiding the young towards the pouch.

Researchers estimate the newborns achieved around 120 movements per minute while crawling.

Reaching the nipple is just the first challenge. Many marsupials, including fat-tailed dunnarts, produce more offspring than nipples available for nursing. While they can carry up to 17 pups, they can only care for 10, contrasting with the Tasmanian devil that has the capacity to produce 30 pups with just four nipples.

Menzies expressed amazement at how fat-tailed dunnarts can give birth to such mobile pups merely 14 days after conception. It was previously believed these tiny babies couldn’t independently enter the pouch without maternal assistance.

“The ability to crawl independently into the pouch underscores the remarkable developmental capabilities of this species,” he remarked. “Just a week ago, these were fertilized eggs consisting of mere cells.”

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Source: www.newscientist.com

This Adorable Footage Captures a Baby Turtle Responding to Its Mother’s Call

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Emerging from the darkness, slimy nails break through the murky barrier, reaching towards the light. Thunder rumbles as the ground cracks.

This is not a scene from a horror film featuring the undead rising from their graves. Rather, it showcases one of nature’s most endearing spectacles, Parent-child relationship: a forthcoming BBC series exploring the struggles of nurturing the next generation of wildlife, specifically the hatching of the magnificent Amazon River Turtle in Guapoi, South Brazil.

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Giant Amazon River turtles featured in the new BBC series Parent-child relationship

According to Sir David Attenborough’s narration, the tiny turtles await the perfect conditions to break free. When rain falls, it softens the sand enough for them to dig their way out. If there’s insufficient rain, the layer of sand above becomes too baked in the sun. They are numerous, making their survival seem effortless.

“There’s always that anxiety. You never know how it will turn out,” says series producer Elizabeth Orcham to BBC Science Focus. “As we sit with the crew, we hope everything works. The moment it rains or doesn’t rain, the tension rises. Is it too much rain?”

The rain arrived early during the filming, but the turtles managed to emerge just in time. “Seeing most of the turtles succeed and not lose too many is really comforting. It’s just wonderful.”

Despite the challenges posed by the weather, two million turtles hatched successfully, overcoming what seemed like insurmountable odds.

“Sometimes, it’s a wonder how they survive. It’s fascinating to see just how clumsy they can be,” she notes.

This clumsiness, however, is part of a finely tuned process. Scientists have been investigating communication among these turtles for over a decade. A 2014 study found that mothers likely communicate with their hatchlings to guide them into the water. According to Oakham, this is the only turtle species known to exhibit parental care post-hatching.

The female giant Amazon River turtle (Podocnemis Exagna), also known as the Arrau turtle, grows to a remarkable 76cm (30 inches) in shell length and weighs up to 91kg (200 pounds), while the male measures at 48cm (19 inches). The hatchlings are merely 5cm (2 inches) long. – Photo credit: Getty

The team even managed to capture charming moments featuring the hatchlings helping each other dig out.

“We were thrilled to showcase this new research on turtle communication,” Oakham explains. The filmmakers even accessed the nest to record the hatchlings’ emergence.

Childcare challenges

Climate change poses the greatest threat to the otherwise stable lifecycle of the giant Amazon River turtle.

“Warmer air due to climate change retains more moisture, leading to two outcomes,” she elaborates. “Firstly, it makes the environment drier, but when it finally rains, the moisture simply drips off.”

Severe floods that once occurred every 20 years have now happened twice in the last five years, jeopardizing the hatching process during critical seasons.

Before hatching, the turtles must absorb some of their yolk sac. If they haven’t done so before floods arrive, they will not survive. Thus, when mother turtles lay eggs, they risk a significant gamble regarding the weather – a gamble that is increasingly hard to predict.

They typically lay their eggs two to three months before the rainy season, allowing the sand to solidify and form a protective layer. At this time, the mothers leave the river for the sandbanks, coinciding with the largest congregation of freshwater turtles on the planet, and one of the few instances the species ventures onto land.

“Water can be life-sustaining but also perilous,” Oakham states. “With climate change, this duality has become even more pronounced, making the environment more unpredictable for these parents. Navigating this uncertainty while caring for their young is a delicate balance.”

This episode is the fourth in a five-part series on parental life in freshwater habitats, Parent-child relationship. All five episodes will be available on BBC iPlayer from August 3, 2025.

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About our experts

Elizabeth Orcum is a producer and director with a deep commitment to environmental storytelling and natural history. She is widely recognized for her work on the fifth episode of Green Planet, titled “The Human World,” which delivers a compelling narrative on the interconnectedness of plants and humans. She is now eager to share the stories of animal parents worldwide through the BBC series Parent-child relationship.

Source: www.sciencefocus.com

Chimpanzee mother’s engage in playful interactions with their offspring during challenging circumstances

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Chimpanzee mother and child in Kibale National Park, Uganda

Dr. Chris Sabbi, Tufts University

When they have less to eat, most chimpanzees stop playing altogether to conserve energy, but mothers continue to spend a lot of time playing with their children. Because play is essential to the physical and psychological development of young chimpanzees, mothers may channel their energy into this behavior to nurture their young, even during difficult times.

Great apes such as gorillas, bonobos, and chimpanzees all tend to engage in play, such as tickling, pecking, and chasing each other. “Play helps develop both motor and social skills,” he says. Zarin Machanda At Tufts University, Massachusetts. “That's really what the baby needs to develop properly.”

For more than a decade, Machanda and colleagues have been observing a community of about 60 Eastern chimpanzees.Pan Troglodytes Schweinfurti) lives in Kibale National Park, Uganda. The team played a total of 3,891 games between 2010 and 2019.

“We had a great summer in 2016 or 2017 when there was nothing but food everywhere on site,” says Manchanda. “And one of the things we noticed was a lot of adult chimpanzees playing with each other.”

When food was abundant, teams recorded at least one play on 97% of observation days, but when food was scarce, this decreased to only 38%.

However, mother chimpanzees continued to play with their children at even higher rates during times of low food availability.

“We were really surprised,” team members say. Chris Sabbi Food is generally more important to female chimpanzees because the energetic cost of reproduction is much higher, according to a Harvard University study.

During periods of food stress, chimpanzees tend to spend more time alone to avoid competing for resources, so mothers are often the only social partners for their babies. As a result, the mother spends even more time playing with her children to compensate for the lack of interaction with her peers and other adults.

“The fact that mothers continue to play with their babies, even at personal sacrifices, shows how important this is to the child's development,” Machanda said. “It's like the hidden cost of being a mother.”

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Source: www.newscientist.com