JAW AND TEETH: WEAPONS FOR ATTACK, TOOL FOR CARE.
I recently saw the statue of a leopard holding an animal in its jaws. At first, I thought it was a prey or a cub but I was not sure. It’s quite intriguing that the same jaws that are strong enough to bite through skin and crush bones can also gently carry newborns without causing harm of any kind.
The carrying of a cub is somewhat of a delicate dance. It takes deliberate cooperation from both mother and child to ensure safe-handling. Cats generally have fewer nerve endings around their necks which is the region where the young cats are gripped by their mothers. This means that they are less sensitive to pain around this region. Also, the feel of the mother’s grip as well as the feeling of being suspended in the air serve as a kind of stimulus to trigger a reflex response. This response is that all of the muscles of the young animal become relaxed as any attempt to struggle could be detrimental to the young animal.
The bulk of the responsibility lies with the mother though and it all point to a decision and perhaps hormonal activity. Just like a human mother may choose to show love or be indifferent towards her child, the mother cat takes up her child and decides whether to harm or to protect it. The mother cat grips her child between her jaws but consciously decides not to exert her immense bite force to wound. However, there have been cases of cat mothers who do not just harm but eat their offspring. This is probably due to inadequate amounts or absence of the hormones that are meant to foster the animal's maternal instincts.
From lions, to leopards, to tigers and even hyenas which have the greatest bite force in the cat family, nature again provides us with an intriguing dynamic ,in the jaws and teeth of these animals; instruments that may be used to end life and also to nurture and protect it.
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