THE WONDROUS BEAUTY IN ANIMALS -4-

THE WONDROUS BEAUTY IN ANIMALS -4- In the middle of winter when brown bears are hibernating, their cubs are born blind and naked, without fur. They are the size of a chipmunk and have only enough strength to climb to the teats where they can find their milk. The female's milk is rich in calories and fat, and during the winter the cubs grow quickly. When their mother awakens up in the spring, the cubs are strong enough to follow her out of the den. Do they not see that Allah, Who created the heavens and Earth, has the power to create the like of them, and has appointed fixed terms for them of which there is no doubt? But the wrongdoers still spurn anything but disbelief. (Surat al-Isra’: 99) The cubs are very active and once outside, quite vulnerable. For a year they stay with their mother, who protects them from every danger while they learn how to look after themselves. Because they are fed constantly for a certain length of time, they grow quickly. Always playing games, they try to climb on top of their mother and wrestle with each other. Like other animal parents, mother bears can be very ferocious towards intruders who may want to harm their cubs. For three years, the mother bear looks after and protects her cubs constantly.14 And He created livestock. There is warmth for you in them, and various uses and some you eat. (Surat an-Nahl: 5) . . . From the contents of their bellies, from between the dung and blood, We give you pure milk to drink, easy for drinkers to swallow. (Surat an-Nahl: 66) In the regions where seals live, spring temperatures seldom reach -5° C (23° F). But seals do not mind the cold, because their fur and stored body fat keeps them warm. Seals live in large herds, so how can a mother seal recognize her own cub in such a crowded environment? As do many other animals, she smells and fondles her baby after giving birth. Coming to recognize its scent, she never confuses it with other babies. Baby seals are completely helpless and unable to protect themselves, but their mothers supply their every need. They are born covered with a layer of baby fat that insulates their tiny bodies and helps keep them always warm. The young of very few mammals grow as rapidly as baby seals do. Within three weeks, their weight increases three or four times! This is because seals' milk is twelve times fattier than cows' milk, with four times as much protein. This lets the babies grow very fast, and much of their mother's fatty milk is immediately transformed into a protective layer of fat in their bodies.15 Allah has created every creature in the best way, supplying its daily food and looking after all its needs: How  many creatures do not carry their provision with them! Allah provides for them and He will for you. He is the All-Hearing, the All-Knowing. (Surat al-’Ankabut: 60) Beneath the skin of polar bears, a layer of fat 11 centimeters (4.3 inches) thick serves as insulation. This lets them swim continuously for 100 kilometers (62 miles) in icy water at a speed of 10 kmph (6.2 mph). Polar bears are also equipped with a very acute sense of smell; able to smell carrion-a dead whale, for example-from as far as 32 kilometers (20 miles) away, and can sniff out seal dens covered with snow.16 Polar bear babies are usually born in the middle of winter, very small, furless and blind. They need a den to live in order to survive the subzero winter cold. But female polar bears make dens only when they are pregnant or have babies. Under banks of snow, they make their dens-round spaces about half a meter (1.6 feet) in diameter which they enter through a tunnel two meters long (6.5 feet). Usually polar bears make more than one room in their dens, and typically place them at a level higher than the den's entrance. In this way, the warm air in the rooms, which naturally rises, is prevented from escaping through the entrance-because at the entrance to their dens, the bears always leave a channel open wide enough for air to pass through it.17 A mother polar bear constructs the roof of her shelter to be from 75 centimeters (2.5 feet) to 2 meters (6.6 feet) thick. Because of this special construction design, heat is retained.18

14. Catherine D. Hughes, "Brown Bears," http://www.nationalgeographic.com/kids/creature_feature/0010/brownbears2.html
15. David Attenborough, The Trials of Life, pp. 36-38; Fort Wayne Children's Zoo, ZAP, "Bringing Up Baby;"
http://www.kidszoo.com/pdfs/BrUpBaby.pdf
16. "Polar Bears," SeaWorld/Busch Gardens Animal Information Database,
http://www.seaworld.org/infobooks/PolarBears/pbadaptations.html; Stirling, 1988; "Polar Bear,"
www.wonderclub.com/Wildlife/mammals/PolarBear.htm
17. Thor Larsen, "Polar Bear: Lonely Nomad of the North," National Geographic, April 1971, p. 574.
18. International Wildlife, November-December 94, p. 15.