Elephant birth

[mstang67chic]

I received this through one of my other groups and felt the need to share. I'm not sure why actually but here it is all the same. LOL

http://www.fwdder.com/static/swf/video-player.swf?topic_id=184431&att_id=0

WARNING!!! This is NOT a joke. It really IS a video of an elephant birth. And for the record, I wanted to slap the guy narrating the video. "The mother elephant isn't making a sound and shows no sign of distress". Uh huh. She's squeezing out a 100 lb baby. She may not be making a sound but can you not SEE the look on her face? Moron.

Oh....and just so you know...there IS a happy ending so don't hold your breath too much.

 

[gcvmom]

Hmmmm... nothing happens at that link.

 

[mstang67chic]

Really? I don't know what's wrong. I tested it before I finalized the post and just tried it again and it worked for me. Hmmmmmm.

 

[susiestar]

What an amazing video. Incredible how nature takes care of things. I think the narrator was an idiot, but elephants DO give birth with a lot less uproar than humans do, at least humans that I know.

I think it is just beautiful to see a new life form. Thank you for sharing.

 

[maril]

Recently, my sister in law sent me the video. Very interesting to watch. I was a bit worried when (at first) baby elephant didn't start breathing.

I, too, caught the comment the narrator made; obviously, clueless.

 

[susiestar]

I can remember my mom taking us to see Casey's Shadow when I was in elementary school. A mom behind us got loud and upset because she thought that showing the horse be born was "pornographic".

My mom held our hands and helped us see the beauty of new life being born.

I still love that movie.

 

[TerryJ2]

I can remember my mom taking us to see Casey's Shadow when I was in elementary school. A mom behind us got loud and upset because she thought that showing the horse be born was "pornographic".

They shoot horses, don't they? They ought to have shot that mom observing the horse. Sheesh.

 

[GoingNorth]

Actually, depending on anatomy, it might be "easier" for an 6ton animal to deliver a 100lb infant that it would be for a 1.5 ton animal to do so.

I know that the process takes a lot longer and seems more painful to horses where foals commonly weigh 100lbs and up. But "pain" is a relative thing and there is no way, looking at the elephant's posture and expression that you can tell me that she isn't hurting.

What surprised me is that "breech" births don't seem to be a big deal in this species. I'd guess due to the anatomy of the mother.

People just "don't get it". We humans have such a tough time delivering due to a combination of a pelvis modified for upright walking, and infants born with comparatively huge skull sizes. That and the fact that human infants are comparatively huge.

I can remember being the midwife for many litters of cats over the years. They used to just amaze me. They'd be miserable during the last couple of weeks of pregnancy (same stuff as human women go through).

And, once labor hit, it it hard and fast. Cats, like most other mammals out there, have a uterus divided into two "horns". They almost always have young in both horns. So, they have to go through the last stage of labor twice. Luckily, nature usually gives them a sort of break in between before switching horns.

It is not unusual to seek a cat actually get up, get something to eat, have a drink, etc.

So, here you have a 10-14 lb mother giving birth to multiple kittens weighing 3-5 oz. (We are talking Maine Coons here, which is why all the weights are so high)...it's hard on them, too.