Children’s books feature tidy nuclear families—but the animal kingdom tells a different story

Animals in children's stories are often depicted as living in neat family units of mom, dad, and children. Examples include Fantastic Mr. Fox, 101 Dalmatians and, more recently, Peppa Pig and Bluey. But it can make people feel like outsiders if they don't come from a traditional nuclear family.

In fact, there is a huge variety of what family looks like in different countries. animal kingdom.

IN care of both parentsThe male and female animal raise their offspring together. This type of parental behavior is predominantly observed in birds and is rarely found in invertebrates, fish and mammals.

Effervescent swans are a good example of how mom and dad can share the responsibilities of incubating the eggs, feeding the swans, and teaching them to be independent.

Single-parent education is the most common form of family in animal kingdom. Usually, men compete for access women. This is due to the fact that the female invests more in reproduction than the male. For example, in a typical mammal, the female is pregnant and nurses and raises the young.

In some cases, for example leopardsThe female raises the offspring completely independently. Actually, single mothers found approximately 90% mammals.

This kind of lonely parenting can be seen in children's books such as The Tale of Peter Rabbit Beatrix Potter. Although there are few stories in which the mother chooses a single parent, unlike the animal kingdom, where females of some species benefit from raise offspring alone.

For example, animals that are left in a nest while their parent or parents search for food may be safer from predators if only one parent leaves scent trails as they come and go.

Sometimes the male raises the cubs on his own. This is more common in fish and amphibians, in which the offspring hatch from eggs. Man midwife toad wraps the fertilized eggs around her hind legs and carries them with her until they are ready to hatch.

Darwin's frog There is an alternative rearing tactic where the male carries the tadpoles in his vocal sac for six to eight weeks until they are developed enough to face the world.

This behavior allows the female to focus on feeding, which means she can produce more eggs for the next batch of young. Male parenting is also much less common in children's books, but a popular exception is Child Gruffalo Julia Donaldson.

homosexuality

Scientists have observed same-sex relationships in more than 500 typesincluding vultures, dolphins, giraffes, bonobos, geckos and dragonflies. Although lifelong homosexuality is rare in the wild, in which animals refuse heterosexual relationships, permanent male-male pairings have been seen in sheep.

In addition, it is known that female albatrosses sometimes reject males after their eggs are fertilized, preferring to raise their offspring in relationship between woman and woman.

One of the most famous cases of homosexuality in captivity is that of Roy and Silo, a pair of chinstrap penguins at New York's Central Park Zoo who formed a bond so strong in the early 2000s that their keeper gave them an egg to hatch and grow.

The story became a popular children's book. And tango makes three Justin Richardson. Unfortunately, Silo's head was turned by a woman named Scrappy, ending his six-year relationship with Roy.

Same-sex parenting can be extended to species in which large family units developfor example, elephants. Typically, elephant families consist of several related females and their cubs, led by an older matriarch. Sisters and grandmothers take on allomotherlooking after the children, teaching them about foraging, vigilance and protection, and sometimes even taking over the joint feeding of the babies.

The history of one of the most famous parent species – honey beeturned into a novel for adults. Bees Laline Poll is the story of worker bee Flora 717, who helps feed her newborn sisters, and her life in the hive.

However, co-parenting does not have to be limited to one gender. Many animals, including meerkatsare cooperative breeders. The young stay home to help their parents raise their younger siblings rather than going off and breeding on their own. Most cooperative breeders are totipotent, meaning they decide to help out temporarily. But some, for example naked mole rats are permanent helpers who refuse to reproduce themselves.

Fostering and Adoption

There are many cases where animals have been manipulated to raise the young of another. The most famous case is that of the common cuckoo, which the female lays an egg in the nest of another species, leaving the foster parent to raise the chick.

This deceptive brood parasitism also occurs within species. For example, sometimes Female starlings shed their eggs in the nests of other starlings.

Intentional fostering and adoption are surprisingly common in the animal kingdom. Occasionally, adoption occurs even between species. In 2004, wild Caring capuchin monkey spottedfor the common marmoset, although it is unknown how long this relationship lasted.

One of my favorite children's fairy tales – Strange egg Emily Gravett, where a mallard duck adopts an egg that eventually hatches into an alligator.

There are also many animals that spend much of their adolescence in friendship groups. This is typical for long-lived species such as Red deerwhere bachelor herds often remain together until sexual maturity.

Like people who are orphaned early, estranged from their parents, or simply left home, animals find family among their peers, learn from them, and form lasting bonds. Young, swifts are forming “screaming parties” for protection when searching for breeding sites in the future.

This latter type of parenting, observed in the animal kingdom, is fortunately rare in humans.no education. There are usually many cubs of these animals, so some of them survive. They are also born to be independent from others.

This parenting style is typical of species such as fish and reptiles, as well as invertebrates including butterflies and spiders. Some species of solitary wasps catch paralyzed grasshoppers in a nest, shut it up, and then leave the nest.

This provides nutrition for their young when they hatch. But if their mother hasn't provided enough food, the larger wasp larvae will snack on their siblings instead. Three quarters of wasp larvae in nests they become food for their brothers and sisters.

So, nuclear families are definitely not the norm when it comes to the animal kingdom. Species employ various methods of parental care to ensure that their genes are passed on to the next generation.

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