Mothers are usually characterized as giving caretakers who protect their young with ferocity. But in the animal kingdom, mothers protect, nurture and raise their young in some peculiar ways. Drs. Chris Barnhart, Janice Greene and Tom Tomasi, all biology faculty members at Missouri State University, share some unconventional or surprising maternal instincts in the wild just in time for Mother’s Day.

Greene, who studies ornithology, said, “Bird parents, especially the female, have to take care of the nests in all kinds of weather—there are even great examples of eagles being buried up to their neck in snow, but still sitting right there on the nest the whole time.”

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