Giant Panda
Min Min cares for her tiny female baby at the Bifengxia Giant Panda Breeding and Research Center in China. Giant pandas have one of the biggest size differences between babies and adults, requiring around-the-clock care.
6 Fierce Animal Moms That Go to Extremes For Their Young
For Mother's Day, we take a look at some of nature's dedicated mamas—which even includes octopuses and spiders.
Traditional Mother’s Day cards don’t usually say “You’re a total badass, Mom.”
But maybe they should.
Giving birth isn’t for sissies, after all—and some mothers go to extremes raising their offspring. This weekend, we celebrate the fierce mamas of the animal world.
An invertebrate may not pop to mind as stellar mom, but the octopus is in a league of its own. (Read more about Mother's Day's early years.)
After female octopuses lay huge amounts of eggs—sometimes in the thousands—they fan them with muscular organs called siphons, which keeps the developing babies oxygenated and free of harmful bacteria.
Not only that, octopus moms do not eat or leave the area while guarding their offspring, says Marah J. Hardt, author of Sex
