Babyfant "Püppi" @ Tierpark Hagenbeck Hamburg

[yogiholzer]

Birth of an Elephant in my hometown. Check this great video:

http://www.zdf.de/ZDFmediathek/content/792018?inPopup=true

 

[sleepy]

Oh My God! Doesn't that elephant need a doctor or something? I mean, pregnancy is so complex.
That elephant is walking around without a clue and she should be laying down or be knocked out by a professional physician for that. I'm screaming.
Help me!

...:)

Seriously Yogi, thank you for the video. Nature takes care of things the best.

 

[Isaac Sauvage]

eurrggh... birthings are a bit hard for me to watch.

i'm always amazed how quickly most animal species begin to function and get around right after birth. most mammals (and birds) probably need intensive care for quite a while, but hooved mammals (incl. elephants) much less so...

 

[mrschultz]

i'm always amazed how quickly most animal species begin to function and get around right after birth. most mammals (and birds) probably need intensive care for quite a while, but hooved mammals (incl. elephants) much less so...

Prey animals are pretty much always up and running quickly. If you can't keep up with the herd you don't survive...

Birds are mixed, some are helpless for weeks, other are walking around right out of the egg.

 

[Isaac Sauvage]

ah, is that right? what kinds of birds are you referring to?

 

[sleepy]

I've "birthed" cats and if you can stand the liver-like appearance of the placentas and the matter of the mother eating the placenta, then there's nothing to it. The water breaks and mama cat often just stands there or walks around with kittens falling out the rear dangling upside-down from the umbilical cord, bobbing up and down like a bungee cord while making tiny kitten sounds like "hey, hey".

The Queen (mama cat) often eats the placenta which contain lost nutrients and fluids, but when the queen feels crowded by too many cats, she will often leave the kittens in their placentas which is a very crude form of birth control. The kittens die without being released from them.

 

[Isaac Sauvage]

when i was living in west philly a few years ago, when one of the the activist / modern day-hippie types had a kid, they would celebrate by inviting their friends over to dinner... which included their baby's placenta as an ingredient.

 

[mrschultz]

when i was living in west philly a few years ago, when one of the the activist / modern day-hippie types had a kid, they would celebrate by inviting their friends over to dinner... which included their baby's placenta as an ingredient.

OK, that wins as the most disgusting thing I've heard in a long time. Sure, most meat eating animals eat the placenta, but that's just gross.

As to your other question:

Most water fowl are running around right after they hatch, usually less than a day from leaving the egg to swimming behind mom. I can't remember the scientific name for it, basically there are 2 types of chicks, those that can regulate their own body temp and those that can't. The ones that can't need heat from their parents for at least a week after hatching, almost as if they were still in the egg.

 

[Rick2007]

ah, is that right? what kinds of birds are you referring to?

Hello Nic, My Friend,,,

Birds have been in my life ever since our baby Quaker parrot fell
out of our Palm tree about 14 years ago. He was hurting big time.
A broken wing and other wounds at the base of his tail.
I watched my wife pick up
a very frightened baby and hold it to her chest. What happened next
will live with me forever. That Baby bird was in big trouble but when my
wife gently held that baby bird a special bond happened. That baby bird
took a big breath, let out a big sigh, and then tucked his head into my wifes chest. It was obvious that he had found safety and his new mother.
What followed next were many $$$$VET BILLS,,,,,,,,,,Well Worth it now!

14 Years later and Gerinimo is one NAUGHTY PARROT,,as all parrots are.
He gets a TIME OUT when he needs one. HE IS A FUN PART OF OUR LIVES!

So I digress big time here,,,,,,,,,, Regarding other birds,,,,,,,,,,

Every spring we get a few bird nests around our house. When the
baby birds leave the nest they tend to hide just below the nest
while they try to figure out "WHAT THE HELL JUST HAPPENED ????"

I love to go outside to watch the babies but I don't try to
screw up nature. I just observe and enjoy nature at work.

Rick

 

[Liteuser.]

when i was living in west philly a few years ago, when one of the the activist / modern day-hippie types had a kid, they would celebrate by inviting their friends over to dinner... which included their baby's placenta as an ingredient.

Gross me out!

That is sick and gross nicolas, I almost puked when I read that. ukel:

 

[sleepy]

How was it Nic? Was it like cheesy menudo or meaty or???

 

[bob]

Nice video Yogi, I wish I could have understood what they were saying.

 

[Isaac Sauvage]

@marty,
it was easier for me to take since i'm one of those 'wackos' who considers humans to be animals. still pretty stomach-churning for me also, however. anyway, water fowl... i can see a new study forming based on lifespan vs. maturation age vs. "ready to go" after birth factor.

@rick,
ah, that's great. florida's native parrot went extinct around 100 years ago but i recently read that so many imported parrots have escaped in the area that a quarter of all parrot species on earth can be seen living wild in florida. btw, someone in dallas from another forum was saying that she gets flocks of quaker parrots on the nearby lake.

@liteuser,
sorry, mate. see what happens when you read an exchange between sleepy and i?
good thing i didn't mention how some of the women in west philly fertilise plants.

@arne,
i think the only way i would have partaken was A) famine, B) large monetary reward, C) save family from gunpoint, D) to look cool-- i'll do anything to fit in!

 

[sleepy]

So, what did it smell like? Did it smell like cheesy menudo, or was it meaty-smelling, or???

 

[Isaac Sauvage]

no idea since i didn't attend. i had friends / housemates who did, but i never thought to ask them about... oh hey, getting the gag reflex here.

there's got to be some testimonials on the web though, since this was hardly a philly kind of thing...

 

[sleepy]

Well, it's not a philly cheese steak, that's for sure.

Gag reflex? Was it the cheesy menudo, or the meaty tasting/smelling, or???

 

[mrschultz]

@marty,
it was easier for me to take since i'm one of those 'wackos' who considers humans to be animals. still pretty stomach-churning for me also, however. anyway, water fowl... i can see a new study forming based on lifespan vs. maturation age vs. "ready to go" after birth factor.

Many animals resist cannibalism, although I'm not sure if the placenta counts as a body part...

When we have baby rats in the lab the mother not only eats the placenta but any babies that are not 100% healthy, leaving the 10 to 12 healthiest ones. I've never seen a rat leave it's mom that's not 100% healthy.

Birds are total oddballs in many areas, including lifespan. Parrots can live 60 years, but lots of other birds the same size only live 10. There is concern now that with poaching and habitat destruction that there are many types of wild parrots that might actually be extinct even though there are still flocks of them around, since they live for 40 years after they stop producing young.

 

[Isaac Sauvage]

some animals will resist cannibalism to a point, but unless they're vegetarians, their alimentary / GI systems unable to process flesh, most of them have their breaking point, no? even omnivores like bears and squirrels will turn cannibal when food is scarce.

do you work with guinea pigs also? (i've forgotten what kind of prof you are)
something i learned about them recently is that they are one of those animals that are either trained or programmed to eat a specific diet and if they don't get what they're used to, will starve rather than shift their diet.

good point about the parrots, although i would think the breeding age range would vary substantially, if only between small-medium parrots and larger ones, such as macaws and cockatoos. life expectancy varies quite a bit between those two groups.

 

[mrschultz]

some animals will resist cannibalism to a point, but unless they're vegetarians, their alimentary / GI systems unable to process flesh, most of them have their breaking point, no? even omnivores like bears and squirrels will turn cannibal when food is scarce.

True, when starving any animal that eats meat will not be picky. Although some mothers will starve themselves to keep their young alive.

do you work with guinea pigs also? (i've forgotten what kind of prof you are)
something i learned about them recently is that they are one of those animals that are either trained or programmed to eat a specific diet and if they don't get what they're used to, will starve rather than shift their diet.

I'm not a prof, I "take care" of stuff for the entire science division, from animals to optics to electronics...

Never had any Guinea pigs here, pigeons, parakeets, love birds, frogs, rats, fish...

good point about the parrots, although i would think the breeding age range would vary substantially, if only between small-medium parrots and larger ones, such as macaws and cockatoos. life expectancy varies quite a bit between those two groups.

Seems to hold true for most birds that they are only able to successfully lay eggs up to just under half their lifespan, so for a bird that lives 60 years they can't really breed past 25.

 

[sleepy]

mrshultz, are you located at a university or somewhere like Carnegie Mellon?

 

[mrschultz]

mrshultz, are you located at a university or somewhere like Carnegie Mellon?

Widener U. a small university just south of Philadelphia.

Later,
Marty