![[0688] Protective](/comics/2015-06-01-0688-protective.png "[0688] Protective")
- Sandra: You’re back already?
- Woo: Lily kicked me out.
- Sandra: How come?!
- Woo: If you thought human mothers were protective of their babies…
- Woo: … then you haven’t met a raccoon mom yet.
- Lily: Woo, my dear, one false move around my kits and you’ll be entering a world of pain!
- Caption: Depelter
- Woo: I’m thirty feet away from the den with my hands tied behind my back!
- Lily: Did I not express myself clearly?
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Seems legit!
What’s a depelter? Is that a typo? Am I stupid?
*looks it up on google*
Oooohhh.
Haha, sounds like my friends
I think that she is even more ferocious than a bear mom….
Sandra…please don’t go and try to talk with her…
First time parents are always the most over-protective. You just wait, by the third litter, Lily will just be tossing the babies at complete strangers for hours at a time.
(No, I have no idea how many litters the average raccoon has in her lifetime)
Per Wikipedia (admittedly not always the most accurate source of information around) “”Since some males show aggressive behavior towards unrelated kits, mothers will isolate themselves from other raccoons until their kits are big enough to defend themselves”” As we do not know Lily’s previous experiences, she is only acting naturally to protect her litter…..
I wonder what might happen if we let Sid have a sip of coffee? 😉
But yeah, those kits seem to be rather safe at the moment.
How did Lily get her paws on a DePelter Turbo? Those things are supposed to be illegal!
I dunno if they’re worse than human mothers…. I can Totally see Ye-Thuza doing that!
DePelters are perfectly lega..er..I mean a great help when… Bah, whom am I kidding? The traps did not work and we need to make black numbers this year
Woo’s expression in the last panel is cute.
The first panel as well…
@ Greenwood Goat:
Maybe they live in Texas?
@ DLKmusic:
Yel Thuza only steps in when her kids can’t protect themselves, otherwise she focuses her energy on making them able to fight their own battles.
Greenwood Goat wrote:
Ye-Thuza has an online business selling Things Moms Need.
Lucario wrote:
If I recall properly, they are in Colorado.
Lukkai wrote:
I thought the squirrel drank an energy drink to move at relativistic speed.
Isn’t…isn’t Woo the FATHER of those kits?
@ Book Bails:
Lily doesn’t speak English, and it’s unclear if she understands English.
Hold on. In the last strip, Lily looked pleased that Woo showed up, albeit after the fact.
So, wait, first she was glad he was around to see the kits, and now she’s not letting him anywhere near the den?
Over-protective is one thing, but I’m thinking her hormones are still a little out of whack…
For a second there, I thought the pine tree in the last panel was an explosion and Lily was calling in artillery fire.
Watch “Over the Hedge” much? 🙂
Cats will often chase off all males too. They sometimes eat the kittens!
I see what you did there… You sneaky comic book geniuses you.
Woo should either be VERY compliant towards Lily for a bit, or prepare for a lot of stinging.
Iron Ed wrote:
And ducks. We had a Mallard pair and a few weeks after the eggs hatched, the male chased off/killed all the male ducklings.
ACME must love these.
@ MissQuinn:
The kits are HER”S. New Mom’s can be protective and will happily kill any and all threats. Real and/otherwise.
Plaid Wolf wrote:
But Woo isn’t unrelated, he’s the father, isn’t he?
No male would kill his own offspring, it’s evolutionarily stupid. It’d be amazingly irrational, even for a wild animal mom, to act this way towards her kits’ dad. Those babies need all the protection they can get, and two is always better than one.
(Hence why pregnant lionesses mate with new males, to make him think the cubs are his. I know it’s not the same lifestyle, just trying to show that wild animals can be clever.)
Although in hindsight, territorial/competitive animals might kill male cubs to prevent competition. But are raccons like that? If so, Lily’s attitude might hint to at least one male in her litter.
Or maybe I just don’t know how moms work ._.
I now want to see a fight between Ye Thuza and Lily. Which mom is the strongest!
@ Iron Ed:
Tell me about it, we lost a litter of kittens shortly after they were born because a wild tom wanted to get their mother back into heat to breed her himself (we kept her locked up and had her fixed so he never got what he wanted, just wish we’d shot him when he showed up in the area before that happened).
David Nuttall wrote:
Everything I can remember seeing pointed toward New England. Vermont or New Hampshire seem particularly likely. The arc about Butterfly’s climb spoke of raccoons coming from “New York, Maine and even Quebec!” (0533)
Hint for Larisa: 2D Rubens Tube… Enjoy! 🙂
So male coons sometimes hurt the babies?
I bet Lily smelt human on Woo, then she remembered Woo is a pet. So she is not trusting him with her kits.
Point taken. @ Mortar:
David Nuttall wrote:
True I think. But both should have had about the same effect, as long as you’re drinking the coffee with a good dose of sugar.
Well let’s hope Lilly comes to her senses and let’s Woo be a father to his own Kits. After all I do recall her wanting him to be the father of all her kits.
@ Mykel Darren:
You have obviously never paid attention to the Crime Statistics for Humans.
Testosterone Poisoning can happen in All Species.
Lukkai wrote:
I’m pretty sure Hammy drank a caffeinated soft drink.
Mykel Darren wrote:
It’s also not at all uncommon.
@ Iron Ed:
To expand, a lot of animals will kill or even eat their own offspring including but not limited to foxes, rabbits, squirrels, and yes racoons. This is because they believe they may not survive due to being born too close to winter or being born in an area that may not be able to provide for them.
It may seem cruel but in all honesty it’s a kindness, better to die quickly than starve or freeze to death.
@ Mykel Darren:
That is completely untrue – male animals are actually a major threat to recently born babies in multiple different species, this is why a lot of big cats mate then the mother has cubs alone and raises them alone, or in the case of tigers, the father is allowed near once they are older and not as easy to kill any more. These are strategies the mothers employ because the males are more likely to kill and eat the cubs out of hunger than the mothers are.
Komodo dragons are a major offender in that the males will kill and eat anything, including their own children soon after they are born, which is why young komodo dragons have to climb up trees where the heavier adults can’t reach them.
In SOME species the children are raised by two parents, such as cats (they usually work in their mated pair to protect their offspring), birds that mate for life, and wolves (primarily during the first mating, during later ones, their previous litters have grown up and are available to help out).
In some cases it is the father alone who takes care of the young by himself such as some species of frogs and some species of fish.
Two obviously isn’t automatically better than one (even in humans this is true) or all of biology would be completely different – in some species a second parent is just unnecessary after mating e.g. with spiders, anglerfish, crocodiles, in others the males have developed so that they will eat even their own cubs if hungry enough and allowed near them (they have evolved to place their own survival over their cubs, most likely so they can reproduce again if the cubs are genetically feeble), in others they work in pairs or groups to look after offspring and in others, no one looks after the children at all (the case for some insect species, some fish species, and a lot of reptile species).
@ Mykel Darren:
well actually male griz will kill just about ANY cub they see as they don’t have a role in the raising process. That is not alone. Many species have males that will kill any cub as they don’t really know it his as they don’t do anything more that siring them. So it is to the advantage of many species for mothers to be overprotective and paranoid. Paranoid overprotective mom= babies live. Careless lax mom=babies die.
I am fairly certain coon names do not have a very significant role in the raising process. While that does not mean it is impossible for a male to figure out that they are likely his due to various traits such as scent it lowers the odds of his telling they are his right off.
well that sucks. she just up and lost all trust in woo. also she’s treating it as if they aren’t his kits too.
i don’t know a thing about raccoons, though.
well, that escalated quickly…
One way to
ruinescalate the hype.Ug! Raccoons aren’t people! Even a cursory Web search shows that male raccoons normally have no part in the raising of their kits. The fact that Woo and Lilly are (or at least appear to be) sapient will not instantly undo millions of years of evolutionary instinct. We are all subject to the drives of our nature. Anyone who claims otherwise is a liar. Even sapient humans fall to their own nature and instincts (i.e. our emotions) and very often cannot override them through intellect alone.
That’s not to say that it’s impossible to overcome instinct, (any aircraft pilot can tell you why) but it is HARD. The fact that Lilly can see Woo and not be growling at him to got lost is proof that she can overcome instinct. Give it time…
female animal follow at matriarchial rasing of kids which is short termed and are agressive towards there own mate as well, hence they dont lets even nicenst of the male mate near their pups not trusting them, this applieds o a big list of animals with only six exceptions present the most common ebing grey wolves who does seventy percent of task from hunting along for the whole family incase no one is available to defending as well as nurturing kids.