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    Animal Mothers 
  • The Trope Namers are the North American grizzly bears. Already famous for being unstoppable eight hundred pound killing machines, the majority of human deaths at the hands of grizzly bears were the result of them getting near a mama bear's cub, which they are very protective over.
  • Bears aren't the only animal mothers who will go berserk on something attacking their young. Zebras, elephants, orcas, grasshopper mice, and many other mammals will ferociously defend their young. Many birds-of-prey, magpies, and some songbirds will fight beak and talon to protect their chicks, especially the raptors. Even reptiles can be Mama Bears: crocodilians especially will viciously defend their young, and mother cobras and pythons remain with their eggs until they hatch and will put the hurt on any predator trying to eat them.
    • Even a doe, a graceful animal that is otherwise so shy and easily spooked that it flees at the first sign of danger, is extremely protective of her fawns, and will not hesitate to fight, chase you down and stomp you if you dare to get too close to them—that their hooves are sharp enough to leave gashes and their legs strong enough to crack bones won't help your case. And they are very fast, so if they hear their fawn wailing for help or see them in trouble, they'll be there at a second's notice. Fortunately, they're kind enough to warn you if you start getting too close, by angrily stomping and snorting, and if their fawns are old enough to keep up with them, they'll usually opt to run off with them in tow instead.
    • Probably the most tragic of natural world mama bears is the octopus; the mother octopus keeps herself in her nest with her multitude of eggs for months, making sure they're clean and keeping them safe from predators. During this time, she never sleeps and never leaves for any reason. Not even eating. In fact, it's been observed that mother octopods will eat their own tentacles before they leave their eggs defenseless. By the time the eggs hatch and the babies leave, the mother octopus is so exhausted that she either dies of starvation or is eaten by predators.
    • Some mother birds raise their young alone, including hummingbirds and many ducks. After their eggs hatch, those mothers become highly aggressive and chase away anything they perceive to be a threat, even creatures much larger than themselves. Mallard ducks, for example, have been seen chasing away crows and dogs, and even wrestling with seagulls to protect their young.
    • Queen Cats and Bitch Dogs also fits this because they don't take kindly to anyone who gets too close of their litters, including the father of the litter, even if they're fostering another. When it comes to guarding, a bitch dog is often used for personal safety due to their maternal instincts since they often viewed their human family as their own.
      • Cats can also go to extreme measures to protect their humans. A domestic tabby named Tara became an internet hero after she attacked and drove off a large dog that had ambushed her owner's four-year-old son.
    • Female African rhinos are biologically hardwired to take this to extremes. An African rhino will not go into heat unless she has some other females with her. This is because a group of lions very likely could kill a calf if they have enough to distract the mother while they do. Waiting until there are a bunch of other females around to go into heat ensures that anything going after a baby rhino will not only have to deal with the mama rhino but at least half a dozen auntie rhinos.
    • If a female spider doesn't die after laying her eggs, she guards the egg sac, and regardless of species, instantly becomes ill-tempered and ready to bite any intruder. Even the normally docile black widow can become aggressive while she's protecting her eggs. This is taken even further by the wolf spiders, who carry their eggs on their back and even take care of the hatchling spiders afterward.
    • Even way back when in the prehistoric times there were plenty of dinosaurs that qualified. Oviraptors in particular are now famous for this trope. And woe betide any predator that was stupid enough to go after a baby Tyrannosaurus rex...
      • And the apple doesn't fall far from the tree; as stated above, birds are well known for being extremely protective of their young. Mess with the nest of a mockingbird or goose and may God have mercy on your soul.
      • It's unclear as to whether this would have applied to the dinosaur's winged cousins, the pterosaurs; for a long time, scientists thought that pterosaurs would have nested very much like birds and reared their young like them too. However, evidence for their reproductive behavior is scant. The same applies to the long-necked sauropod dinosaurs, as, whilst what are implied to be nesting colonies have been found (particularly Auca Mahuevo in South America) it's unclear as to whether or not the adults stuck around.
    • Their distant oceanic cousins may have also applied for this, as a fossil found in North America implies that plesiosaurs may have given birth to live young and practiced parental care. Woe betide any predator that was stupid enough to try and go after a baby Liopleurodon. Averted with mosasaurs, however; fossils have indicated, like their monitor lizard cousins, adults may have cannibalized the juveniles.
    • This rat could give an actual mother bear lessons in defending one's baby from enemies far bigger than yourself.
    • Even mother penguins can be protective of their young. In this video, a rockhopper mother lays on her chick and fights off a group of females that want to take her chick away before her mate shows up and successfully drives the group away. There’s also an emperor mother who sticks close to her baby and pecks at some female penguins that are obviously after her chick.
  • This very literal interpretation of the trope. Seriously, Bears Are Bad News when protecting cubs!
  • There is at least a theory that skeletons of cave lions are found in caves (where they didn't live) because they got inside to prey on cave bear cubs during the winter, and were killed by the cubs' mothers. Consider that the ordinary cave lion was bigger than a Siberian tiger, and the cave bear, while slightly more robust than the grizzly bear, was a full vegetarian.
  • Female alligators and crocodiles of all creatures are fiercely protective of their babies.

    Human Mothers 
  • A mother who fought off a cougar with a towel.
  • Catherine de Medici could fit this trope, considering to what lengths she went to keep the crown on her son's head.
  • María de los Ángeles Veron was a 23-year-old young mother who went missing in 2002 in Argentina and rumoured to have been sold to a trafficking ring. Her own mother Susana Trimarco raised her granddaughter, became a human rights activist, was internationally recognized, went undercover as a prostitute to find her daughter, founded organizations to help other women, and liberated thousands of victims. She also spent near the last two decades fighting for her daughter's case.
  • Kirsty MacColl died pushing her son out of the path of a speedboat.
  • Katherine of Aragon, the first of Henry VIII's six wives, refused to accept Henry's attempt to set her aside and annul their marriage partially because she was in love with her husband; but her main reason was that allowing him to do so would mean her daughter, Mary I, would be declared legally born out of wedlock and therefore unable to inherit the throne. By the end, she was reduced to living in near poverty because she refused to speak with anyone who did not address her as 'Queen,' and Henry VIII left her to rot in damp, unhealthy houses, and severed all contact between Katherine and Mary. Given that Katherine suffered six pregnancies (Mary was her fifth child) and only Mary survived infancy, it's no wonder.
  • Queen Boudica of the Iceni Celts went from Chieftain's widow to Lady of War when the Romans whipped her and gang-raped her two young daughters. True, she was eventually defeated, but she made things difficult for the Romans for a while, and razed 3 of their largest cities to the ground (to the point where evidence of the fires can still be found by digging in parts of London, Colchester, and St. Albans today) and slaughtered 70 or 80 thousand of their inhabitants and the soldiers defending them in the process, taking time out to massacre the Ninth Legion, leaving only around five hundred survivors out of over two thousand. Nero, the emperor at the time, almost made the decision to abandon Britain during the crisis.
  • Anne Frank’s mother Edith died of starvation a mere three weeks before her concentration camp was liberated by the Soviet army because she stopped eating in order to give her daughters any food she managed to find.
  • A Spanish woman was raped, and the rapist taunted her mother about it. Her response? She just calmly walks into the bar he was in, turns the rapist around, pours petrol all over him, lights a match, stares at the resulting inferno, and then just "turned and walked away."
  • A few from the Wars of the Roses:
    • Margaret of Anjou was definitely this. While her husband, King Henry VI. of England, was suffering from mental instability which made him unable to rule and defend his crown from the House of York, she took things into her own hands and became the leader of the Lancastrian faction. She did this mostly to defend her underaged son Edward's birthright as the future king. She ended up defeating the Yorks at the second battle of St. Albans but was eventually forced into exile. After years of political scheming, she returned to England with her son in order to support the Earl of Warwick's rebellion against the Yorkists. Tragically, she was defeated at the battle of Tewkesbury and 17-year-old Edward was killed. She herself was taken prisoner and later ransomed by King Louis XI. of France. In France, she spent the last years of her life as a broken woman and died there.
    • Margaret Beaufort, dedicated her entire life to ensure her son, Henry Tudor, would become king. She made one plot after another to ensure his safe return to England after his exile in France and then secured alliances for him, such as marrying Thomas Stanley and arranging the marriage of Henry to Elizabeth of York. Her efforts paid off when Henry defeated Richard III and became King Henry VII of England in 1485, founding The House of Tudor. He recognized her efforts and honored her greatly.
    • Elizabeth Woodville, wife of King Edward IV of England and part of the House of York. After her husband died, her eldest son Edward V was deemed too young to rule, so Edward IV's brother Richard was brought in to rule as Regent. Three months later, Parliament declared that Edward's marriage to Elizabeth was invalid, making Edward V and his brother illegitimate and therefore unable to inherit the throne, and their uncle Richard became Richard III. Shortly afterwards, Edward and his brother disappeared, and while historians agree that we'll never really know what happened to them due to lack of evidence, Richard III remains one of the chief suspects, and back then it was believed he had them bumped off. He did, however, have Elizabeth's son from her previous marriage and her brother executed. Elizabeth's response to all this? She made an alliance with the above-mentioned Margaret Beaufort of the House of Lancaster and agreed to support Henry Tudor's claim to the throne, on the condition that he marry Elizabeth's eldest daughter, also named Elizabeth. The plan succeeded, Henry became Henry VII of England, and the Wars of the Roses ended through his marriage to Elizabeth of York. For bonus points, it was a Perfectly Arranged Marriage and they were very happy together.
  • Anna Timofeevna Gagarina, mother of Yuri Gagarin. Getting between her and her children was not a good idea. During World War II, she verbally and almost physically bested an armed and considerably larger German soldier who attempted to hang her youngest son, Boris, from a tree — needless to say he was quickly released to her. Apparently, before Yuri's funeral, she demanded the casket be opened.
  • In 1871, seven-year-old Mary Winchester was kidnapped by Burmese tribesmen. At this, the Lieutenant Governor of India sent guess who after them and persuaded them to release Mary in about three months. Queen Victoria considers hurting her subjects to be Serious Business.
  • An unidentified mother in Atlanta, Georgia shot the burglar five times!
  • An Inuit woman was able to fight a polar bear to protect her son and his friends. The woman survived the attack too!
    • That article also mentions a woman who faced a blazing house fire to rescue 2 young girls at risk for her own life.
  • A Texas mom was carjacked with her two young boys in the backseat. The second that the scumbag threatened her kids at knifepoint, she decided to run her car into a pole, disorienting him. At that point, she disarmed him, punched him in the jaw, and then when he tried to escape, she nailed him with the car so he couldn't do it to anyone else. Bad. Ass. Don't mess with Texas, indeed.
  • This lady's two young sons were allegedly molested by a community coach. So what did she do? She beat the ever-loving crap out of him with a baseball bat.
  • This video of a high-speed pursuit in Dallas ends with the fugitive crashing his vehicle into a mini-van that contained a mom and her kid. The mom proceeds to Hulk-smash out of the car and beat the criminal's ass to the moon. The video title even calls her a Mama Bear!
  • Supermodel Heidi Klum, who saved her son and his nannies from drowning when they were caught in a riptide. In interviews afterward, she downplayed her heroics and stated that she did what any mother would have done.
  • Charlotte Laws. When her daughter Kayla found out from a friend that a revealing photo had been posted on a 'revenge porn' website, Laws - a former detective - responded with the Operation No Moore campaign (named after the site's founder, Hunter Moore). Even repeated rape and death threats didn't stop her from getting the FBI involved in shutting down the website and getting Moore and his hacker arrested. As she herself says, "They messed with the wrong mother."
  • Don't You Dare Insult the children of Michelle Pritchett because it will result in a WWE-Style smackdown if you do. Just ask Oklahoma Sooners fan Michael Connolly... who found out the hard way at the Sugar Bowl in 2014.
  • In the 2008 Mumbai terrorist attacks, the rabbi Gavriel Holzberg and his wife Rizka were among the casualties. The family's nanny, Sandra Samuel, managed to grab the couple's 2-year-old son Moshe and run away from the terrorists, saving both the kid and herself.
  • The Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo were an organization of women formed around the Argentinian Dirty War who fought for the knowledge of what happened to their "disappeared" children (who were involved in left-wing causes against the government and soon were kidnapped, never to be seen again). They soon concentrated on finding the grandchildren who were illegally adopted by officials. Keep in mind that they were openly opposing the government at a point where most of the opposition were raped, killed, and tortured after being kidnapped. The picture of badass isn't necessarily of a buffed-out superhuman with armor and gadgets, it can also be of several middle-aged and elderly women wearing cloth diapers as head scarves...
  • This young teen mother from Oklahoma shot and killed an intruder while on the phone to the police dispatcher to protect her three-month-old son. Her final quote sums it up best:
    Sarah: There's nothing more dangerous than a mother with a child.
  • This mother, who delivered an epic verbal beatdown to the boy who harassed her daughter in class and the school officials who were going to punish her for defending herself against him.
  • In 1981, Michael Donald, age 19, was kidnapped from the streets by the KKK and was hanged. His mother Beulah Mae, with the Southern Poverty Law Center, filed a lawsuit against the Klan....and won. This bankrupted the Klan and gained their building.
  • Israeli Prime Minister Golda Meir is an interesting example: on the one hand, she has often been characterized as the kindly mother or grandmother of the nation. On the other hand, she's the Trope Namer of Iron Lady, years before Margaret Thatcher codified it.
  • A woman set her husband on fire because she caught him molesting their 7-year-old daughter.
  • After the Harvey Weinstein scandal broke in fall 2017, it turned out that Gwyneth Paltrow was one of his victims. Maureen Dowd wrote an op-ed that slut-shamed Gwyneth for how she handled the harassment back then. Gwyneth's mother Blythe Danner, herself an acting veteran, was displeased, to say the least:
    To the Editor: I cannot remain silent while Maureen Dowd disparages my daughter, Gwyneth Paltrow, for the manner in which she chose to handle Harvey Weinstein's attempt at a sexual encounter when she was 22 ("Harvey Weinstein, Hollywood's Oldest Horror Story," column, Oct. 15). After her initial shock, Gwyneth left the room immediately, and, despite the fact that Mr. Weinstein threatened her if she ever spoke of what happened, she reported it to her agent and to her boyfriend at the time, Brad Pitt, who confronted Mr. Weinstein. Gwyneth did not "put aside her qualms to become 'the first lady of Miramax'" back then, as Ms. Dowd would have it. She continued to hold her own and insist that Mr. Weinstein treat her with respect. She had learned from her father, the producer and director Bruce Paltrow, how to stand up for herself. Bruce received the first Diversity Award from the Directors Guild for helping women and minorities in our business. His daughter wasn't the only woman he taught to fight for herself. As a longstanding member of the industry, I am much aware of the many years of its prejudiced and unacceptable behavior toward women. No one would argue that Harvey Weinstein isn't finally getting what he deserves. But I hope that this is the point of no return where change will occur, not only in our industry but also others. I suggest that the pundits stop casting aspersions on the women who have confronted unwanted sexual advances in the manner each sees fit and concentrate on the constructive ways to prevent this behavior in the future. BLYTHE DANNER, LOS ANGELES
  • In 2018, a Brazilian police officer named Kátia da Silva Sastre was off-duty picking up her daughter on school, and when suddenly a thug showed up trying to rob the school and pointed a revolver towards the mothers and children. She reacted faster and gunned him down, with the whole incident being caught by security cameras. This incident happened on the weekend of Mother's Day and she was rewarded by the state governor himself for her bravery.
  • On October 15, 2018, Jamaican police inspector Allison Grant-Johnson was awarded with Jamaica's Medal of Honor for Gallantry after an incident in 2016 where she engaged three gunmen in a shoot-out when the crooks attempted to break into her home by holding her daughter as a hostage.
    Grant-Johnson: She (daughter) would have alerted me by three screams of ‘mommy, mommy, mommy,’ that I’ll never forget as long as I live. When I heard it, I realised that this wasn’t normal so I drew my firearm because I recognised that I was under attack and in no time I saw guns and I just did what I had to do.
  • In this Reddit post, a user tells the story of how his wife (a professional boxer), after 17 years of hell living with their violent, sociopathic son, finally hit her Rage Breaking Point and gave him the mother of all No-Holds-Barred Beatdowns after catching him cutting his baby sister with a steak knife.
    ...I’ve never seen a more merciless beating laid onto anyone, before or since. He was lying on the floor, rolling around with blood leaking out of his face, lying in a pool of vomit. His nose was squashed flat out across his face, both of his eyes were completely swollen shut and starting to blacken already. I could see that a couple of his fingers were bent out at weird angles and he had pissed his pants. I think he must have been missing teeth, but I couldn’t see any on the floor and I couldn't see inside his mouth, his lips were all puffed up and swollen. From talking to my wife about it later, I know now that she had systematically beaten every part of his body, focusing heavily on his legs. She told me she kicked him in the groin repeatedly until her legs got tired, and had kept beating his body long after he had passed out.
  • Eleanor Roosevelt put her back into killing the boss system after her son, Franklin D. Roosevelt Jr., was sabotaged by Tammany Hall boss Carmine de Sapio in the 1954 race for Governor of New York. The political reform efforts she spearheaded ruined de Sapio and permanently diminished the power of the bosses.
    Eleanor Roosevelt: I told Mr. de Sapio that I would get him for what he did to my son Franklin — and I got him.
  • Many stories of The Steve Wilkos Show involve women who fit this trope, especially when there's allegations of physical or sexual abuse towards their children, something Steve greatly admires. Of course, it can be zigzagged, as there are others who are neglectful or abusive to their kids, but there's definitely a ton of Mama Bears who would tear the world apart for their babies on the show. Melissa is just one prime example.
  • Queen Elizabeth II has been described as being extremely protective of young children. If any of her grandchildren were upset, courtiers would have to get out of the way as she zoomed in to provide comfort.
  • Naya Rivera drowned while out on a boating trip with her four-year-old son, after a current (which are notably strong and extremely unpredictable on Lake Piru, where they were) sent their boat floating away from them while they were swimming. Authorities noted that, given the circumstances and what her son was able to tell them, she likely swam to catch up with their boat and help him back on board, but was too exhausted to climb up herself, and wound up being pulled underwater by the current. As tragic as her very early death was, there is at least some solace in the fact that her son was completely unharmed, and was quickly rescued. note 
  • British media personality Katie Price (aka Jordan) is noted for being extremely protective of her severely disabled son Harvey. When he was bullied by Internet trolls, she called them out on live TV and began a campaign to criminalise online abuse.
  • In September of 2019, Emma Schols literally walked through fire to save all six of her children from their burning house. She successfully saved them all. In the process, 93% of her body was burnt (burn victims don’t survive with 90% of their body burnt), and for three weeks she hovered between life and death with only a promise to her eldest son that she will return to them made before she was taken to the hospital. She ended up making a speedy recovery and resumed normal activity. Her story can be read here.
  • In 2018, two teenage boys Larry Oldway and Maurice Gordon (fourteen and sixteen respectively) from Louisville, Kentucky were tragically found stabbed to death and their bodies burnt. Their mother, Marie Wren, attended court to testify against Brice Rhodes, one of the four accused killers. When he dared turn to her and laugh at her for her sons' deaths, she went ballistic and attempted to tear him limb from limb. It took three security guards to hold her back and escort her out of court.
    Marie: WHY DON'T YOU LET ME GET TO HIM? HE'S SICK!
  • Catherine Oxenberg went huge lengths to contact press after press and made herself public after several tries failed in order to get her daughter India out of NXIVM's sex cult instigated by Keith Raniere.
  • Christine Collins reported her son Walter missing in 1928, leading to a case which became one of America's most infamous disappearances. When the police investigated and returned "Walter" home to her, she instantly knew the boy they bought to her was NOT her son (why they thought he was or if they even bothered to look in the first place is a huge point of contention in the case). She subsequently spent 36 years of her life searching endlessly for her missing son, only stopping because she died in 1964. Tragically, she was never able to find Walter and the case was never solved.
  • Some people cherish their pets as children, so it's not surprising when they get violent to protect their animals. Two Florida women made headlines for saving their dogs from being attacked by alligators.
  • Ellie Nesler. In 1988, her then six-year-old son William was revealed to have been sodomized by a camp counselor, Daniel Mark Driver, she was concerned about the prospect of having her traumatized son testify and relive those events. Not only that, but it was also revealed that Driver had not only allegedly molested four other boys between 1986 and 1989 but served five months for a sexual assault conviction in 1983. Ellie was called down to the courtroom in Jamestown, California to testify on April 2, 1993; she then drew a handgun and shot him five times in the head and neck. Nesler pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity and was convicted on a lesser charge of voluntary manslaughter. She was sentenced to 10 years in prison but won an appeal based on juror misconduct and was released after three years. The story didn't have a happy ending though; shortly after being released, she was convicted on a drug charge and while in prison, her son learned from her example and killed a man in a dispute. He was sentenced to life in prison for the act separating them till her death in 2008.
  • Marianne Bachmeier was a West German woman whose seven-year-old daughter was kidnapped, raped and murdered in 1980. The following year, while the murderer was on trial, she smuggled a semi-automatic pistol into the courtroom and shot him six times in the back, killing him.
  • In 1982, Robert Dale Henderson went on a killing spree, and murdered at least 12 people (which included his wife's parents and her much younger brother). In one of his attacks, he bound an unidentified woman and her 12 year old daughter at gunpoint in their home, and raped the mother. When Henderson tried to do the same to her daughter, the mother broke free from her restraints and attacked him. She was able to drive him away from their home with the help of her daughter. Contemporary newspaper articles noted that the mother fought harder for her daughter then she did for herself.
  • Dame Helen Mirren once related a story about one time she protected a baby from an actual bear. The bear had managed to get into the house she and her family were staying in because of an open door and it advanced on the baby. Helen saw this bear right next to her, and she immediately stretched out her arms and roared at the bear. Let's reiterate that. Helen Mirren. Roared. At a bear. Following instincts, the bear decided it was not worth it and Helen wound up having to help push the bear out the door because it got stuck on the way out. It even had peed itself, according to her because she could smell urine.

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