Animal Parenting Archives - Dr. Carin Bondar

Elephant Moms and the Loss of a Calf

January 6, 2021 0

It is commonly accepted that elephants are extremely intelligent and curious animals, capable of complex social interactions. Recorded events have clearly demonstrated that elephants are intensely curious of other elephant corpses at varying states of […]

Animal Kingdom Wet Nurses & The Milk Evacuation Hypothesis

December 23, 2020 0

Moms can employ a number of strategies to ensure that their young are adequately fed during their first few months of life. Many of these involve providing help to other moms by sharing in the […]

The Social Status of These Bird Moms Determines Their Egg Size

December 16, 2020 0

In addition to manipulating their eggs based on the qualities of dad, bird moms can also alter egg allocation levels based on the social system. This is especially evident when the social system is one […]

Bottlenose Dolphin Newborn Development

November 18, 2020 0

Bottlenose dolphin moms give birth in an open environment. Newborn dolphins remain very close to their mothers for the first few weeks after birth. Echelon Swimming Something called echelon swimming takes place for at least […]

These Primates Always Have Twins

November 4, 2020 0

The New World monkeys of Central and South America, tamarins and marmosets, are the main groups of cooperatively breeding primates. These are collectively known as callitrichids, and they inhabit many areas of Central and South […]

The Importance of Colostrum

October 28, 2020 0

Milk pretty much picks up where the placenta left off in terms of how a mammalian infant is provisioned by its mom. The most energetically demanding time for infants, the period just after birth, coincides […]

Bird Moms Can Alter Their Eggs Based On The Quality Of The Dad

September 9, 2020 1

Mother birds are able to alter the unique properties of their eggs based on the identity of the father. Paternal quality can play a huge role in a mother’s investment in his eggs. After all, […]