Oh! Nature

Recently there was a news report on a cow delivering its young one. The report stated that the cow expends quite a lot of energy during delivery that it is dead tired and hungry after the calf is born. My research indicates that it takes about 270 to 290 days for a calf to be born much similar to humans. It is the legs that come out first followed by the face after three or four contractions in case of a normal delivery.

In one such case in a Bangalore public road, the cow after its delivery went on search for food, and lost its way. The calf was mooing for its mother’s milk which generally is fed by the mother immediately after the delivery. A veterinarian passing by could sense the discomfort of the calf, and since the search for the mother seemed to be in vain, decided to feed the calf through a feeding bottle. The calf would not drink from the nipple of the feeding bottle when the veterinarian came with imaginative stuff. He started mooing like the mother cow and simultaneously starting feeding the calf. The calf started sucking the nipple, and enjoyed milk to its heart content.

That very night, the calf was again hungry, and sans the veterinarian, refused to drink milk. Since the veterinarian stayed about 30 kms from the cattle shed, an unique method was adopted by the veterinarian. He instructed his staff to keep the phone receiver on the calf’s ear and he started mooing over the phone, when again the calf started sucking the nipple, and drinking milk. It was a great moment for the staff at the shed since this kept the calf going.


It was amazing and fascinating to see how the calf responded to drinking at the sound of the mother’s voice. That , I guess, is association with a mother. Research again indicates that that the child is biologically pre wired to bond to the mother. The mother’s voice becomes a reinforcement by being paired with feeding and thereby eliciting a positive response from the infant.

Simply fabulous are the ways of nature.