Two female bison gave birth within an hour of each other and then did something scientists had never documented before.
The births happened near Yellowstone National Park, beside Hebgen Lake in Montana.
Instead of separating with their own calves, the two mothers stayed together.
Both females cleaned and cared for both newborns.
Then something even more unusual happened.
Each calf began nursing from both mothers.
The females appeared to accept the arrangement, effectively sharing the exhausting work of feeding, protecting and caring for two newborn calves.
Researchers watched the group for more than five hours.
They described it as the first documented case in wild bison combining cooperative birthing behaviour with “allonursing,” where a mother nurses another female’s offspring.
Scientists could not say for certain why the mothers behaved this way.
They may have been related.
They may simply have benefited from sharing the workload and keeping four eyes watching for danger instead of two.
Whatever the reason, the scene offered a rare glimpse into a side of bison behaviour that had never been formally recorded before.
Two mothers.
Two newborns.
...now this has been seen before by people over generations, but this may have been the first time a scientific team witnessed it. Some of you may have seen this with your cats, as they do this, too. Also, some of you writer types may wanna do this with a fanfic or two.
