Animals are quite intelligent and show several of the characteristics that we see in human beings - compassion, love, nurturing, protectiveness etc. The list of animals is endless; there are about a million types of animals living on earth today. Many times we can learn a lot from these animals about taking care of their young. Most of the young ones of the same species (but different parents) are identical in shape, color, size etc. We human beings find it difficult to differentiate between twins, but mother animals can easily recognize their young ones. How is this possible?

Most of the young ones need their mother's constant attention and therefore close contact is essential. The mother animal uses ones of the four senses to recognize her young ones, that is, smell, sound, touch or sight. A majority of the mammals can separate their children from others by smell - this is most common among sheep, horses, seals and deer. Each young one (sheep in particular), when born, has a particular smell. The mother sniffs the smell and notes it in her memory. When the need arises, she merely sniffs around among the young sheep and finds her child.
 

Since scientists consider animals to be anything alive other than a plant, birds are also put into the same category as the above-mentioned animals. With birds, the mode of recognition is mainly sound. Each child is exposed to its mothers' call at the time of hatching, and continues to remember the sound as it grows. Dr. Konard Lorenz, an Austrian naturalist, has done special studies on geese. In the experiment, he removed the mother geese from her children just as they were about to hatch, and he, himself sat near the eggs. While the eggs were hatching, he let out the 'mother call'. The young geese ended up getting attached to him and followed him all around. They were most comfortable when he crawled on his knees and hands, since he was closer to the ground and they were able to keep up with him.

Other factors like shape, size, touch all play vital roles in helping mothers recognize

their young babies. Even human babies can distinguish between their mother's voice and other women's voices at a very young age. Nature has created a beautiful method of keeping mothers and children close to each other.