Babies - with fur, with smooth skin, with feathers,
whatever – all* have loving parents.
A few weeks ago I visited the Wildlife Rehabilitation Center near Espanola, New Mexico. They have a hospital where they treat between 650 and 900 injured and orphaned wild animals annually, releasing as many of them as possible back to the wild. Some of them, however, become permanent residents because they couldn’t survive by themselves. Either because they have permanent disabilities from past injuries or because they had become “imprinted” on humans, they are now Ambassador Animals, which means that visitors to the Wildlife Center may learn about them and see them from up close.
I talked to the Ambassador Animal Specialist who handles a Bald Headed Eagle named Dyami who had fallen out of his nest and suffered a wing injury. He also developed cataracts and spent a lot of time in the hospital. He needed a lot of recovery time, and his handler took small, gentle steps teaching him to trust her, training with him every day, using positive reinforcement techniques. I asked her whether they have a “loving” connection, but she explained that they don’t use the word “love”; these wild animals are not domesticated, not like pets. What she has with this eagle is more like a trust-bond. He doesn’t necessarily love her, but he trusts and recognizes her.
I had to think about this for quite a while, and finally came to the conclusion that I don’t agree! I understand they want to avoid anthropomorphizing, but feelings of love are definitely not restricted to humans only; I’m sure I don’t have to find scientific proof for this statement. Maybe she meant that wild animals are not capable of love? That can’t be it; more about this later. Maybe it means that wild animals can’t or won’t love humans, but that doesn’t make much sense either. There are many stories about wild foxes or deer or raccoons that became somebody’s loving pets. And while it’s possible to trust somebody without loving or even liking them, there’s no reason why a creature would NOT like or love another being who treats them with kindness and is generally sympathetic.
For over two months now, I’m checking the Decorah Eagles livecams in Iowa every day. I have a tab open in my browser, and every so often I have a quick look, while I’m working on the computer. I’ve followed Mom and Dad Bald Eagle (who mate for life) taking turns and sitting faithfully on two eggs, keeping them warm. The first one hatched in early April but died after less than 24 hours – nobody knows why. The other one hatched a few days later on April 6, and watching Mom and Dad ever since feeding their baby, keeping it warm at first even in snow and rain, and now, that he/she is quite big, delivering food regularly and keeping a watchful eye on the eaglet – well, if that’s not love, I don’t know what you’d call this.
I’m sure an eagle could find a more protected place to spend the night, but Mom loves her baby and therefore endures being covered almost completely with snow.
Once it got warmer, the parents would protect the little one from too much sun.
And before you know it, the baby is almost fully grown! The parents still feed, but the nest is too small for all of them to sleep there. It’ll take another two to three weeks before the eaglet will fledge, but he/she is practicing a lot hopping around, flapping the wings so it almost looks as if it would take off.
While this little guy is taking plenty of time to grow up, a pair of Canada Geese began nesting in a former eagle-nest close by. The Decorah Goose Cam made it possible to follow this little family as well; Mama Goose sat on six eggs for about 33 days. It was totally fascinating to watch the little goslings emerge from their eggs!
And it was surprising to notice that the little babies didn’t get fed after they had hatched. For more than 24 hours they peeked out from underneath Mom every once in a while, scrambled around for a bit, and then sought the warmth underneath Mom’s body again, but – no food. They didn’t get fed.
The lifecam moderator cleared this up for us anxious watchers: geese are precocial. Which means that the babies are relatively mature when they’re born, their eyes are open, they have already down feathers, and they can move around almost immediately. I had no idea! They are ready to leave the nest about one or two days after the first egg hatches.
But wait a minute – this nest is way up in a tree, about 70 feet above the ground! And yet, once Mom and Dad fly down, the goslings jump. They follow their parents because they love and trust them. Isn’t this amazing!
Once they’re on the ground, the goslings start eating grass and feeding themselves. And soon after they follow their parents into the river and swim along! Whereas our little eaglet has to wait about twelve weeks before he/she can take off and become more independent.
And humans? They belong to altricial organisms, are relatively immobile after they are born, can’t feed themselves, have no hair yet, and need to be cared for by their parents. Like the eaglet. I think instead of worrying about being too anthropomorphic when observing animal behavior, we should focus more on our similarities. Yes, we humans are different, but maybe not as much as we assume. Once we internalize this more, it will be harder or impossible to exploit and harm animals. Which in turn will help the environment and the planet. Win-win!
*When I claim that ALL beings have loving parents, I need to modify this somewhat, and add “in general”. I’m not sure if there are many instances of abusive parent-behavior when one looks at non-human animals, but with humans it’s unfortunately not all that uncommon. Sigh.
What a lovely Sunday afternoon story and photos. Gotta love all dem babies!
beautifully written article / thought provoking / thank you / and the pictures !!