Why Do Animals Protect Their Young? The Truth!
Contents
Moms are often a family’s first protectors, and the same is true across much of the animal kingdom.
In many mammals, mothers do most or all of the work of raising young. In other species, fathers help or even take the lead; male emperor penguins, for example, keep the egg warm through the Antarctic winter.
So why do animals protect their young? Is it instinct, or do animals feel something like love? Here is the short answer.
Why do animals protect their young? Protecting young is mostly instinct, shaped by evolution. Parents that guard their offspring pass on more of their genes, because more of their young survive. In many species, parents also feed their young and give them time to learn survival skills.
Let’s look closer, starting with the reasons behind this behavior.
Reason Why Animals Protect Their Young
People usually give two explanations. The first is instinct, which scientists agree plays the main role. The second is that animals feel attachment or love for their young.
The two are not really separate. Hormones released around birth, such as oxytocin and prolactin, help trigger milk production and maternal behavior in mammals. Those same systems are linked to bonding.
Many newborn animals depend completely on their parents for food, warmth and protection. They are most vulnerable to predators while they are small.
In lions, it is the females that do most of the work. According to the Smithsonian’s National Zoo, female lions raise the cubs and are the pride’s primary hunters. Males defend the pride’s territory, though they sometimes join a hunt.
A pregnant lioness usually leaves the pride to give birth in a hidden spot and keeps the cubs there for several weeks before bringing them back to the group.
The biggest danger to lion cubs often comes from other lions. When a new coalition of males takes over a pride, they kill all cubs that cannot run from them, the National Zoo notes. Lionesses defend their cubs fiercely against these males.
Elephants also show strong care for their young. The whole family herd, led by an older female, helps protect calves from predators.
Animals do seem to form emotional bonds with their young. Mother animals of many species call for lost young, and elephants react strongly to the death of herd members. Scientists still debate how much of this is "love" in the human sense.
How Do Animals Protect And Care For Their Young?
Instinct drives parents to protect their young and to attack threats if needed. How they do it depends on the species.
Animals protect their young by hiding them, guarding them, and fighting off predators. Many also feed, clean and teach their young until they can survive on their own.
Some parents stay with their young for years, while others leave soon after birth or hatching. Many fish, reptiles and insects give no parental care at all; they produce many eggs instead, and most of the young do not survive.
Mammal mothers nurse their young with milk, groom them, and keep them warm. In species that hunt, young animals learn by watching and practicing alongside their mother.
What Animals Are The Most Protective Of Their Child?
Here are some of the most devoted animal parents.
Elephants
Elephant pregnancy lasts 20 to 22 months, one of the longest of any mammal. Calves are born large, weighing 110 to 264 pounds.
Elephant calves are raised by the whole herd. Mothers and other females, usually relatives, guard the calves and teach them how to find food and water.
Lions
Lions are included on our list because of how protective lionesses are of their young.
Lionesses give birth to one to four cubs after a pregnancy of about three and a half months. Cubs nurse for about six months but start eating meat at three months, according to the National Zoo.
Females in a pride often give birth around the same time and may nurse and guard each other’s cubs.
Orangutans
Orangutans have one of the strongest mother-and-baby bonds of any animal.
Young orangutans may stay with their mothers to nurse for up to seven years, the longest childhood of the great apes, according to San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance. The mother teaches her young how to find fruit and build night nests. Adult males do not help raise the young.
Cheetahs
Cheetahs are the world’s fastest land mammals. Cheetah mothers raise their cubs alone, with no help from the father.
The average litter is three to six cubs, and cub mortality is very high. In Tanzania’s Serengeti National Park, about 90% of cubs die before three months of age, according to the National Zoo.
The mother hides the cubs and moves them often. At about six months old, she brings them live prey so they can practice hunting. At around 18 months, she leaves the cubs, who stay together as a sibling group for about another six months.
Polar Bears
Male polar bears do not help raise cubs. After mating, the male and female go their separate ways.
A pregnant female digs a snow den, gives birth to one to three cubs (usually twins) in December or January, and nurses them there for the first few months without leaving to eat. Her milk is about 36% fat, the richest of any bear, according to San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance.
Cubs usually stay with their mother for about two to two and a half years while they learn to hunt.
Koalas
Koalas are marsupials. A newborn koala joey is only about the size of a large jelly bean. It crawls into its mother’s pouch, where it drinks milk and grows for about six months.
After that, the joey rides on its mother’s back and still returns to the pouch to hide or sleep. After about a year, it can live alone in the trees.
While it switches to eating leaves, a young koala also eats "pap," a special soft dropping from its mother. Pap is thought to pass on the gut microbes the joey needs to digest eucalyptus leaves.
Do Animals Love Their Offspring Like Humans?
Animals protect their young mainly because of parental instinct. Some people believe love also plays a role. Do animals love their offspring the way people do?
Do animals love their offspring like humans? No one can say for sure, because we cannot ask them. Many animals clearly form strong bonds with their young, call for them when separated, and risk their lives to defend them. Whether they feel this as "love" in the human sense is still an open question.
From an evolutionary view, caring for young is how many species survive. Animals that did not care for their young would leave fewer surviving offspring.
Fathers vary widely. Male lions, polar bears and orangutans leave the raising to females, while wolf fathers bring food to the pups and male seahorses carry the eggs in a pouch until they hatch.
Final Verdict
Animals protect their young mostly because of instinct, supported by hormones and the bonds that form after birth. Whether that bond is "love" is still debated, but the effort many animal parents make is remarkable.
Sources
- Lion, Smithsonian’s National Zoo and Conservation Biology Institute
- Cheetah, Smithsonian’s National Zoo and Conservation Biology Institute
- Orangutan, San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance
- Polar Bear, San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance
