Most Hard Working Mothers of Animal Kingdom
Giant Pacific Octopus The giant Pacific octopus is perhaps the hardest-working marine mom, laying up to 74,000 eggs in a deep den or cave and painstakingly caring for them for seven months without leaving — not even for food.
African Elephant At two years, elephants have the longest gestation period of any mammal. They also give birth to the largest babies of any land animal, with newborns weighing up to 200 pounds. Combined, it's easy to see that the African elephant is a hardworking mother.
Gray Kangaroo For gray kangaroos, motherhood is all about multitasking. Babies are born at an early stage in development — just 36 days — and then make their way to their mother's pouch, where they will remain for further gestation and feeding until finally venturing out about nine months later.
Virginia Opossum The Virginia opossum can have anywhere from four to 25 babies in a single litter. However, female opossums only have 13 nipples — 12 in a circle and one in the center. Because marsupials can only feed one joey per nipple, only the first 13 babies of a litter tend to survive.
Emperor Penguin The birthing process for emperor penguins is one of collaboration between mother and father. The mother exhausts her food reserves producing an egg. After laying it, she transfers the egg to the father, an act that takes the utmost care from them both because damaging the egg would mean the death of the chick-to-be.
Strawberry Poison Dart Frog While the emperor penguin mother goes the distance for her chick, the strawberry poison dart frog climbs great heights for hers. First, she lays her eggs on the Costa Rican rainforest floor. Once the eggs hatch, she carries the tadpoles one by one to individual tiny pools of water — usually in bromeliad leaves but sometimes up to the tallest trees of the rainforest canopy.
Orca There is no rest for orca mothers after their calves are born. The newborn killer whales don't sleep at all for the first month of their lives, which means the mother doesn't get to sleep either.
Taita African Caecilian The Taira African caecilian gives the skin off her back — literally. Once this wormlike amphibian mom's eggs have hatched, she grows an extra, nutritious layer of skin that she allows the children to eat.
Tailless Tenrec The tailless tenrec of Madagascar can give birth to up to 32 babies in one litter. Even an average litter size of 15–20 babies means a lot of mouths to feed.
Frilled Shark Though little is known for certain about the mysterious, deep-dwelling frilled shark, scientists believe that females have the longest gestation period of any vertebrate — up to 3.5 years.