By Sarah Rhodes, Naturalist
While walking through the ELC campus, take a moment to think back to your own relationship with your mother. Most human mothers continue supporting their offspring throughout the trials of life. In the wild, motherly care takes quite a range of forms – from only caring for the eggs prior to hatching to teaching the offspring all there is to know about feeding, migrating, socializing and choosing habitats. Here are some wild mothers you may see while exploring campus.
Let’s start on George’s Trail with one of our smaller, invertebrate mothers, the fiddler crab. She hides in her burrow while her eggs develop under her belly and then she releases them on an outgoing tide so the larvae will be transported offshore where they will develop in a habitat with fewer predators. Each egg mass can range in size from 4,500 to 23,700 eggs!
Marsh rabbits are also found along the paths in the early morning and early evening hours. Marsh rabbit mothers build their nests by lining thickets, stumps or logs with fur and grass. Usually a mother produces an amazing 6 or 7 litters a year with up to 4 rabbits in each.
The gopher tortoise burrow near the Entry Pavilion is another favorite stop. Gopher tortoise mothers usually produce one clutch of eggs every year during May or June. At the opening of the burrow or in a nearby sunny spot, the mothers lay 3-15 eggs and incubate these eggs for 80 to 90 days.
While passing by the pond, an osprey mother may be seen sitting on her eggs between late January and March or feeding her young. There are 3 chicks on average in each clutch of eggs. When the eggs hatch both parents drop fish in the water in front of the nest so the babies can practice catching fish.
So the next time you encounter all or just a couple of these animal mothers hopefully you will have a new respect for how they care for their young.