Super ferocity!

Another survival instinct is one we share with mama bears (and maybe mama bees). It's a primal protectiveness that's ignited when a mom sees her cub threatened or suffering. Mother rabbits have been known to stand tall on two legs to intimidate coyotes eyeing their newborns. Mama badgers can scare off grizzlies. Maybe you've seen the mom next door make short work of the playground bully or put a thoughtless soccer coach in his place.

While Kim Moldofsky's family of four was out watching fireworks last Fourth of July, their Chicago home was robbed. The 911 operator they called to report the crime told them to leave the house immediately in case the thieves were still around. "My boys ran out in their summer pajamas," she explains. "But it was ten-thirty at night and chilly. So when my husband commented that they were shivering, I just took off." Leaving him with the boys, she ran back to the house to get them clothes, grabbing a big stick on the way. "I kept banging it so the supposed robbers would know I was there."

Was she scared? "No. My adrenaline was flowing," she says. "I was P.O.'d!" The robbers may have made off with a few valuables, but they weren't going to leave her children cold!

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