One behavior among animals that differs from humans is their parenting.
Some may exhibit the same attitude towards caring for their babies as we do, but most have a unique way of showing it, from African elephant females who nurse a calf that isn’t theirs to seahorse males who give birth. We can add bald eagles to that list!
Murphy is a 31-year-old male bald eagle who went viral because of its “weird” behavior.
Visitors of the World Bird Sanctuary in Valley Park, Missouri, noticed that he was sitting on the ground, unlike the other occupants in their enclosure.
People wondered if he was hurt or if something was wrong with him. The park’s management said he wasn’t.
Due to multiple concerns, they posted this sign by the cage.
Apparently, he was trying to build a nest on the ground because he was incubating a rock they fondly called his “RockBaby.”
This isn’t unusual behavior for male bald eagles since they usually share parenting duties with their mates.
And even if without a mate and egg to care for, it’s natural for eagles to exhibit natural reproductive behavior during Spring which is their mating season.
Poor Murphy. His paternal instinct probably kicked in and fostered this rock to care for.
He became very protective to the point that he got aggressive with his other eagle friends in the enclosure. They had to separate him and his RockBaby from the others so that he could nest in peace.
But it still seemed sad that he cared for a rock, not an egg.
Coincidentally, the sanctuary rescued an injured and orphaned bald eagle chick.
They discovered that a storm had blown down its nest and had nowhere to stay. They also needed to pair the chick with an adult eagle to take care of it.
Although they were initially hesitant, Murphy was the best candidate for the job.
At last, Murphy has an eaglet to care for – like a real eagle dad!
Eaglet 23-126 was around 1-2 weeks old when it arrived in the sanctuary and met his foster dad almost two weeks later. He stayed with Murphy, and the viral eagle fed his foster eaglet for the first time.
In this video shared by the sanctuary’s Facebook page, it looked like Murphy is a natural!
He stood beside the eaglet and waited for it to eat. However, he noticed that the baby didn’t eat immediately, as if it didn’t know how.
So, Murphy took some of the food to show how to do it, then the eaglet followed. It was like a match made in heaven!
Murphy showed how great of a father he was and still is!
The sanctuary gives constant updates on Murphy and his transition from RockBaby to Eaglet 23-126. They even created a fundraiser to support the eaglet’s health and food until the baby is ready to be set free to the wild.
This story shows how one’s parental instincts kick in when they’re meant for it.
There are many things we humans can learn from bald eagles and how they nurture their young. No gender roles whatsoever, and just pure and gentle love for their little ones.
Watch this incredible story in the video below.
