How Animals Care for Their Young: Parenting Styles in the Animal World

How Animals Care for Their Young: Parenting Styles in the Animal World — page 1
ANimal childhooD Have you ever wondered what the childhood of animals looks like How their parents take care of them so that they’re safe from enemies but at the same time can learn everything necessary Well it’s the same as with people Animal babies too are often defenseless and dependent on the care provided by adults Mammals rank as the most attentive parents because they feed their young with milk but fish reptiles amphibians birds and insects also have some diligent parents And by the same token you can find some mammals who don’t look after their young very well HERE THEY ARE Who will take care of us When it comes to animals fathers usually don’t take part in rearing their young They simply produce offspring with their chosen partner and then go after their business Mothers are left to provide all the care education and rearing However there are couples that divide the care equally among themselves Penguins for example do it quite cleverly Good exceptions also include seahorses the males carry their young in their pouch until hatching I LEARNED HOW TO WALK WHEN I WAS A YEAR AND A HALF OLD WELL I WAS ABOUT AN HOUR OLD IT WOULD BE GREAT IF MY HUSBAND LOOKED AFTER OUR BABIES THIS WELL Memories of childhood An animal's childhood can last entire years for example with chimpanzees or mere months and weeks It depends on many factors how developed the offspring is at birth what its environment is whether a parent or an entire group takes care of it or what parents want to pass on to it before it grows up For example the young of marsupials are born undeveloped and must spend a significant amount of time in their mother’s pouch where they drink milk and grow stronger On the other hand the young of zebras and giraffes can walk within an hour of being born otherwise they’d be unable to get by in the rough savanna 2