If the mother gets distracted during this critical period, say by chasing off a seagull that’s scavenging on her freshly birthed placenta, then oxytocin levels can remain at the level of a non-breeding female. ‘If for any reason they miss that bonding window, you can’t recreate it outside of giving birth or having a massive artificial dose of oxytocin injected into your brain. And that’s when you start to see these rejections,’ Robinson told me.
