Mutterpferd mit Fohlen auf blühender Wiese, beide mit roten Halftern, im Hintergrund ein Zaun.

Mother's Day

There are also many "best" mums among the animals

From the perspective of an Aiderbichler

(written by Gisela Pschenitschnig)

On Mother’s Day, grateful children give their mum flowers and sweets. Motherly love is the strongest feeling of all. One could also speak of a trick of nature that motivates female humans and animals to look after their children virtually 24 hours a day.

Ziege mit neugeborenem Lamm auf Weide von Gut Aiderbichl, im Hintergrund weitere Tiere und Zaun.

Strategies to ensure the survival of the animal kingdom

Stunned faces look at me when I tell them that it can happen that a triplet from a mum sheep or a mum goat is simply left to die – unless the baby animal is discovered by a human and raised by hand. Humans are quick to judge and call the animal mums raven mothers. Did you know that a mother raven is actually a good mother? Even when her offspring have fledged, the mother raven continues to look after her offspring for weeks.

In various animal species, not only the mum but also the grandmother is involved in caring for the little ones. For example, the grandmother in the elephant family protects the offspring and supports the mum elephant in raising the young elephants. The lead cow in an elephant family is largely the elephant grandmother. We can see parallels to the human family, can’t we? Grandmothers play an important role in the family structure – whether in humans or animals.

The laziest mum among the animals is the cuckoo mum. She looks for a host bird with a nest. She matches the colour of her cuckoo eggs to the eggs of the host bird and lets them hatch. Pretty clever.

Zwei Schafe, ein Lamm und ein erwachsenes Tier, nähern sich liebevoll auf einem Bauernhof.

Vier schwarze Schafe grasen auf einer saftigen Wiese mit einem Holzzaun und hügeliger Landschaft im Hintergrund.

The unique bond between a bitch and her puppies

Aiderbichler animals are neutered because our mission is not to breed animals, but to give animals in need a home.
Dogs from crisis areas or from countries where people cannot afford to neuter their dogs are brought to Gut Aiderbichl in Romania, for example, together with their puppies. Numerous rescued bitches from Ukraine have given birth to many puppies at Gut Aiderbichl. They all have one thing in common: the unconditional love they feel for their little ones.

The love of a dog mum is deeply touching and fascinating. A phenomenal mixture of instinct, care and patient devotion is characteristic of dog mums. The time of pregnancy, the moments after birth, the weeks and months of rearing by the dog mum – is like a wonderful spectacle of nature.

Zwei Hunde mit roten Geschirren rennen auf einer Wiese, einer davon lacht freudig.

Anna-Carina and Palmina - happiness looks out of these horses' eyes

We took Anna-Carina from the horse dealer. Initially, Gut Aiderbichl was not intended to be the final destination in her life – but fate had other plans. Anna-Carina was pregnant and gave birth to her foal on the night of Palm Sunday. Palmina was born all alone and without complications.

The weeks leading up to the birth were special for Anna-Carina. Her eyes were soft and spoke a special language. She liked to lay her head on your shoulder. Those were always special moments. There was strength, melancholy and also the anticipation of what was to come: Anna-Carinas Fohlen Palmina.

Anna-Carina lovingly licked her little one. This got the circulation going and Palmina soon set off in search of her mother’s milk. Even baby animals need to sleep a lot. Immediately after drinking, the foal lay back down on the straw, breathed deeply and slept until it got up again to look for a good source of milk. The human then also has to learn that it is not possible for everyone to touch the little foal. Anna-Carina chose the human hands that were allowed to touch her and her baby.