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 between mom, dad and children. Examples include Fantastic Mr. Fox, 101 Dalmatians and, more recently, Peppa Pig and Bluey. But that could leave people feeling like outsiders if they don’t come from a traditional nuclear family.

In reality, there is great diversity in family composition within the animal kingdom.

In two-parent care, a male and female animal raise their offspring together. This type of parental behavior is mainly observed in birds and is rare in invertebrates, fish and mammals.

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

Single parenthood represents the most widespread form of family in the animal kingdom. Usually, males compete for access to females. Indeed, the female invests more in reproduction than the male. For example, in a typical mammal, the female is pregnant, nurses the young, and raises it.

In some cases, such as leopards, the female raises her offspring alone. In fact, single mothers are found in about 90% of mammals.

Such single parenting is visible in children’s books like The Tale of Peter Rabbit by Beatrix Potter. Although there are few stories where the mother chooses to become a single parent, unlike in the animal kingdom where females of some species benefit from raising their offspring alone.

For example, animals left in a nest while their parent(s) forage for food may be safer from predators if only one parent leaves scent trails during their comings and goings.

Sometimes the male raises his young alone. This is more common in fish and amphibians, where offspring hatch from eggs. The male midwife toad wraps his fertilized eggs around his hind legs and carries them with him until they are ready to hatch.

Darwin’s frog has an alternative parenting tactic in which the male carries his tadpoles in his vocal sac for six to eight weeks, until they are developed enough to face the world.

These types of behaviors allow females to focus on feeding, which means they 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 The Gruffalo’s Child by Julia Donaldson.

Homosexuality

Scientists have observed same-sex mating in more than 500 species, including vultures, dolphins, giraffes, bonobos, geckos and dragonflies. Although lifelong homosexuality in the wild is rare, in which animals forgo heterosexual relationships, permanent male-male matings have been observed in sheep.

Additionally, female albatrosses are known to sometimes reject males once their eggs are fertilized, choosing to raise their offspring in female-female relationships.

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 such a strong bond in the early 2000s that the keeper gave them an egg to hatch and raise.

This story was turned into a popular children’s book, And Tango Makes Three, by 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 where large family units develop, such as elephants. Typically, elephant family units are made up of several related females and their young, led by an older matriarch. Sisters and grandmothers take care of all-motherhood, look after the young, teach them how to find food, be vigilant and defend themselves, and sometimes even take care of community breastfeeding of infants.

The story of one of the most famous communal parental species, the honey bee, has been made into a novel for adults. Les Abeilles by Laline Paull is the story of the worker bee Flora 717, who helps feed her newborn sisters, and her life in the hive.

However, community parenting does not have to be limited to one gender. Many animals, including meerkats, are cooperative breeders. The young stay at home to help their parents raise their younger brothers and sisters rather than going off to reproduce on their own. Most cooperative breeders are totipotent, meaning they choose to help temporarily. But some, like naked mole rats, are permanent helpers, forgoing their own reproduction.

Reception and adoption

There are many cases of animals being manipulated to raise another’s young. The most famous case is that of the common cuckoo where the female lays her egg in the nest of a different species, leaving the adoptive parent to raise the chick.

This deceptive brood parasitism also occurs within a species. For example, sometimes female starlings throw their eggs into the nests of other starlings.

Deliberate fostering and adoption are surprisingly common in the animal kingdom. Sometimes adoption even occurs between species. In 2004, a wild capuchin monkey was spotted caring for a common marmoset, although it is unclear how long this relationship lasted.

One of my favorite children’s storybooks is The Odd Egg by Emily Gravett, in which a mallard adopts an egg that ends up hatching an alligator.

There are also many animals who hang out in friendship groups well into their adolescence. This is common in long-lived species, such as red deer, where bachelor herds often stay together until they reach sexual maturity.

Like humans who are orphaned early, separated from their parents, or simply leave home, animals find family among their peers, learn from them, and form strong bonds. Young swifts form “screaming groups” to protect themselves while searching for places to breed in future years.

The final type of parenting seen in the animal kingdom is, fortunately, rarely seen in humans: no parenting. The young of these animals are generally numerous, to ensure the survival of some. They are also born to be independent of others.

This parenting style is typical of species such as fish and reptiles, as well as invertebrates including butterflies and spiders. Some types of solitary wasp traps paralyze grasshoppers in their nest, close it and then abandon the nest.

This ensures a food supply for their young when they hatch. But if their mother didn’t provide them with enough food, larger wasp larvae will munch on their siblings instead. Three-quarters of wasp larvae in nests end up serving as food for their siblings.

Nuclear families are therefore certainly not the norm in the animal kingdom. Species adopt various methods of parental care to ensure that their genes are passed on to the next generation.

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.