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    Nature’s Babies
    Nature’s Babies
    Nature’s Babies
    Ebook108 pages2 hours

    Nature’s Babies

    By Mike Dilger

    5/5

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    About this ebook

    There are few things more endearing than baby animals, but their charm belies their struggle for survival. From frolicking foxes to boisterous bears, lounging lions to zealous zebras, Nature's Babies explores the lives of some of Nature's most engaging offspring and reveals the ingenious ways they cope with growing up.

    When it comes to 'bringing up baby', Nature has an infinite variety of approaches, from parents who lovingly tend to their young for years to newborn babes who rough it on their own from day one. Nature's Babies offers a rare insight into how young animals make it into this world and learn to fend for themselves.

    Accompanied by beautiful photography throughout, Mike Dilger takes us on a journey of discovery through the intriguing world of Nature's Babies.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherHarperCollins UK
    Release dateJul 10, 2014
    ISBN9780007588930
    Nature’s Babies
    Author

    Mike Dilger

    Mike Dilger is one of wildlife TV's best-known presenters in his role as resident wildlife reporter on BBC One's primetime current affairs show, The One Show, since 2007. With degrees in Botany and Ecology, Mike spent many years in the rainforests of Ecuador, Vietnam and Tanzania, before returning home to reacquaint himself with his first love – British wildlife. Mike is also a columnist for BBC Wildlife magazine and a reporter on BBC Radio 4's Costing the Earth; his expertise and infectious enthusiasm see him pontificating on everything from bumblebees to basking sharks.

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      Book preview

      Nature’s Babies - Mike Dilger

      Tortoise, Galápagos giant

      © Frans Lanting/FLPA

      INTRODUCTION

      Nature’s Babies is an unashamed celebration of the fully technicoloured glory of the natural world itself. The seemingly infinite variety of different baby shapes and sizes is of course down to the cleverest and most powerful beast of them all: evolution. What else would have created babies that at one end of the spectrum are impossibly cute, yet at the other end would not look out of place in the most off-the-wall science fiction novels?

      Parenting skills can vary enormously from the non-existent to the lavish. For some animals being born is a rude awakening into a harsh, unforgiving world with no parental care whatsoever – just ask leatherback turtle hatchlings as they have to run the gauntlet to sea!

      This book showcases some of the weirdest and wonderful stories of the babies’ development, too. Who would have thought, for example, that a grey kangaroo’s baby is born no larger than a kidney bean, and from the moment it enters the world has the most daunting journey to complete even before it will be able to feed for the first time? And exactly why do Galápagos tortoises take an astonishingly long 25 years to reach maturity?

      Whilst focusing on the babies, this book will hopefully also test our own notions of how we humans fit into the natural world. We think of our birth, babyhood and adolescence as normal, but how ‘normal’ compared to other animals are we? Whilst we perhaps arrogantly think of the human race as producing model babies and parental skills that are unsurpassed, do we in fact have something to learn from our wild cousins? After reading Nature’s Babies, you decide!

      LITTLE GRIZZLIES

      Found right across North America, Europe and Russia, with smaller pockets in Asia, the brown bear is both the most common and widespread of all eight bear species. The famed grizzly is the race of brown bear most commonly found in Alaska and Canada, so-called because its hair is lighter at the tip than at the base which gives this bear a ‘grizzled’ appearance.

      The larger grizzlies can reach an impressive 700kg (1,500 lb) in weight, and with their massive shoulders, huge forearms and plate-sized paws, they must be one of the strongest animals in the world; their only predator is, of course, man and his gun. Ironically for an animal with such size and strength, the main diet of grizzlies tends to be roots and fungi, supplemented by fish and small mammals if and when available. Their incredible bulk is often used to drive wolves and cougars away from kills.

      During times of plenty in the summer months, the female grizzly puts down huge reserves of fat which she relies on to get her through the winter. The breeding season also occurs in the summer, but the fertilized egg will not be implanted and begin to grow until the winter, when the female is tucked away asleep in her den, hidden away from the worst of the weather. The most common litter size is two; the blind, toothless and hairless cubs are born in the winter den and grow quickly on their mother’s milk, only emerging with their mother into the big, wide world when spring finally breaks.

      Russia

      © Roger Tidman/FLPA

      Little grizzlies remain with their mother for two to four years, learning the ‘tricks of the trade’ which will prove essential if they are to grow up as big and strong as their parents.

      LIKE A DUCK TO WATER

      Unlike seals and dolphins, our smallest marine mammal has no blubber. This means that adult sea otters have to spend up to three hours a day grooming their fur meticulously to ensure that it stays in top condition and remains able to trap the vital insulating layer of air which keeps them warm.

      When they are not busy grooming themselves, sea otters spend a large part of the day hunting for food. From depths of up to 40 m (131 ft) they retrieve clams and sea urchins from among the rich kelp forests on the sea floor and bring these up to the surface. The sea otter is an animal which likes to spend a large part of its life belly up, even when feeding. Lying on its back, it uses its underside as

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