TIL: SOMETHING INCREDIBLE ABOUT WILDEBEESTS
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As I continued to watch the LIFE STORY DVD, I learned something else that I had never even heard of before.
Strangely, it also had to do with the birth of a certain kind of wild animal. When I had been watching earlier, I learned that dolphins give birth backwards. When I watched more, I learned about something that happens after the birth of a wildebeest.
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Many of us already know that Wildebeests live on the continent of Africa, and face some pretty serious difficulties in their lives. Drought and migrations can take their own toll on these creatures, and it seem like predators are constantly hunting these beasts down. Wild dogs, Cheetahs, Crocodiles, Hyenas, and Lions all like to prey on the Wildebeest herds.
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In many ways, it has become a world where you need to be very cautious or you will be killed and eaten out there in the wild. The hurt, old, sick, and very young are the most vulnerable. In ways, when big predators kill the weak and sick, it helps the remaining herd to be more healthy. by removing the ones that could infect others. If anything is left of the carcass after the larger beasts feed off of it, the scavengers quickly come to finish the job.
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Being able to avoid getting eaten is very important for every young Wildebeest, and it seem that the mother helps in this process. A newborn Wildebeest can run one hour after birth, and fully keep up with the herd within days.
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As many people know, a baby is not all that comes out during a birth; there is also the afterbirth, which is mainly the placenta. How quickly the placenta detaches and is "birthed" can vary, but the mother Wildebeests can actually time when it happens. Since, to many predators, the afterbirth is just a delicious pile of bloody meat, it can attract a variety of predators to the source of the birth if it is passed right away.
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When there are no predators in the area, the mother Wildebeests will let the afterbirth come out naturally, relatively soon after the birth. However, if the mother knows or believes that predators are lurking nearby, she will wait up until an hour after birth, when the baby calf is ready to run, to birth the placenta. Remarkably, she will often head off in one direction to deposit the afterbirth, then come back to the newborn calf and leave with her young calf in the opposite direction!
This displays an incredible amount of awareness on behalf of the Wildebeest, and an incredible amount of built-in capability too. How incredibly designed the creatures of earth really are!
DID ANYONE ALREADY KNOW THIS?
To read what I learned about the birth of Dolphins, CLICK HERE.
As always, I'm @papa-pepper and here's the proof:
proof-i-watched-more-and-learned-more
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I think that maybe your hairstyle should be called "The Wildebeest" in honor of this new information you have graced the community with!
Not a bad idea @onceuponatime!
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I believe it!
Interesting.
The part about the deaths of the weak and sick making the herd more healthy reminded me of the book by Farley Mowat Never Cry Wolf where he learned that the wolf makes the caribou herd healthier.
Cool - I never can remember where I learn somethings, but at least I can remember.
Neat how things work together that way!
Thanks @vcelier!
Interesting, I've lots to learn about animal birthing from you it seems :D
Seems to be the kind of information I'm encountering these days!
Thanks @justtryme90!
Getting on a reproductive kick, eh? Hrmmm...
I didn't know either!
I figured maybe it would help your dreams come true @anotherjoe!
Again a very good article and very interesting.
Some really interesting stuff to be be sure!
Thanks @rynow!
Life story is incredible. I was just telling my buddy about it tonight and then I see this lol. That first part of episode 1 was probably the most insane BBC clips I've ever seen!
Cool, that's really neat!
Thanks @jaybird!
I didn't know any of it papa :(
mrfoot thought it was a Wildebeast
But now I know why mamafoot always said to read books...
Now you know, so you can show that mama!
Seems like they would evolve them an AR-15 and put a stop to all that harassment....
hehe.
he he