Amazing care given by living creatures to their eggs and the young ones It is well-known that living beings expend a great deal of effort in caring for their eggs and young ones and they endure a great deal of hardship in doing so. They conceal them from the eyes of their enemies and protect the eggs from being broken, besides keeping them at a reasonable temperature and not exposing them to intense heat. They move the eggs from one place to another if they sense any danger that threatens them, and they continue to guard them for several weeks without getting tired or bored. Some of them even carry the eggs in their mouths. We may note these behavioral patterns that are filled with mercy and kindness in many species of fish, birds and reptiles. • For example, the python which may pose a serious danger to the life of man, handles its eggs in a very kind and gentle manner. This snake lays approximately 100 eggs at a time then it curls up around the eggs. The purpose of this curling up is to protect the eggs from high temperatures by shading them, and protecting them from the cold by lifting its body up and away from them. The eggs remain free of danger so long as the mother snake remains curled up around them. By means of this care, the female python reduces the danger faced by the young ones when they are still inside the eggs. • There are some kinds of fish that exhibit remarkable behavior in caring for their young while they are still inside the egg. The female fish collects the eggs in her mouth as a means of protecting them; hence, this species is known as mouth- brooding fish. The young fish will quickly swim to their mother’s mouth when they sense danger. This behavior is common in the catfish which will swim for several weeks with its mouth filled with eggs the size of small ball bearings. The fish shakes its mouth from time to time to shift the eggs and allow the oxygen that is dissolved in water to reach them. When the eggs hatch, the small, weak youngsters spend the next few weeks in their father’s mouth. During this period the male does not eat at all, and it uses the stores of fat in its body to continue its vital functions. • The frog is regarded as another example of a living being that carries its eggs and its young ones in its mouth. The female Rhinoderma frog carries the eggs inside her body, and when the mating season comes, the females lay their eggs on the ground and the males go around the eggs in a movement which demonstrates their ability to protect them against predators. When the embryos begin to move inside the eggs, prior to emerging from them, the males rush to the piles of eggs and take in their mouths the largest number of these eggs which are surrounded by a layer of transparent gelatine. The males collect the eggs in the sides of their mouths, in the vocal sacs, so their mouths appear to be very swollen, and these eggs remain in the mouth until the embryos are fully grown. Then the male starts to vomit a number of times, and finally he yawns very widely so that the young, who are now fully developed, have their chance to emerge and begin their lives. • There is another kind of frog that lives in Australia, which swallows its eggs to protect them, not in its mouth but in a sac in its stomach. It may seem to the reader that in this case the eggs would be destroyed because of the acidic digestive juices, but what happens in the case of these animals is the exact opposite. The stomach stops secreting these enzymes the moment the female swallows the eggs and thus the eggs are not exposed to any danger. • There are other kinds of amphibians that use different ways of protecting their eggs, such as the midwife toad, the male of which collects the eggs using its front legs to attach them to the back of the female, then its skin swells up to help attach these eggs firmly, and a thin protective layer is formed to protect the eggs too. After 30 hours, the eggs disappear beneath the skin on the female’s back, which resumes its original form. The eggs start to grow beneath the female’s skin, and after fifteen days the embryos start to move inside the eggs, which make the female’s back look as if it is undulating. After twenty days, the little frogs begin to emerge through holes that may already have opened in the mother’s skin, and after they emerge they begin to look for safe places in the water. • The care shown by birds toward their eggs takes on different forms which are both confusing and amazing. For example, we see the small rain bird which lays four eggs in a hole in the ground, and if the temperature rises, the bird dips its chest in the water until its front feathers are wet, then it sits on the eggs and covers them with the wet feathers, and thus it is able to reduce the impact of the high temperature. • The diver bird builds its nest of water moss floating on the water. This bird covers its eggs with this water moss, and this acts as a kind of air-conditionin g to control the temperature inside the nest. • The pelican sits on its eggs to provide the necessary warmth that is needed for the wings to grow, and it shifts position every now and then so as to provide equal warmth to all the eggs. • The sand bird uses a different method to keep its eggs warm. After the female lays her eggs in the nest, the male takes care of them. He sits on them and plucks the feathers that cover his chest and spreads them in the nest, and the blood vessels in his chest fill with an extra amount of blood, the heat of which is sufficient to provide the necessary warmth to the eggs for more than three weeks. When the young emerge from the eggs after hatching, the male continues to care for them for more than a week and a half then he takes turns with the female in carrying out this important task. The task of maintaining the temperature in the nest at a certain acceptable level is regarded as something very important for all living beings. What is amazing is that animals follow different methods to achieve this vital task, and show great sensitivity in doing so. It seems to us that it is impossible for a bird, snake or bee to understand the importance of maintaining the temperature at a precise level and then follow a certain method to achieve this aim by themselves. The source of this knowledge and understanding is Allah, the Exalted, may He be Glorified and Exalted, Who created these beings and instilled in them these characteristics as lessons for those who ponder. [from “Scientific Miracles in the Oceans & Animals” by “Yusuf Al- Hajj Ahmad”, published by Darussalam, 2010]
Posted on: Sat, 20 Sep 2014 12:42:51 +0000
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