Adventure family
Adventure family
Cheetah mums always have to watch out for predators such as lions and
hyenas. So, to stay ahead of danger, they move their litter (their young)
every few days. Cubs stay with their mum for around 18 months while
she teaches them important hunting and survival skills.
Moving outMoving outMalleefowls are a species of Australian bird who build special
mounds for their eggs to hatch in. The mum then lays the eggs
while the dad gets very fussy about the temperature. He uses
heat from rotting plants to keep it at a perfect 33ºC, removing or
adding leaves until everything's just right. A lot of effort goes into
building the perfect mound - but once the chicks are hatched,
mum and dad leave their chicks behind!
After-school club
After-school club
Mother giraffes often form parenting groups where they take
turns to look after each other's young. They do this so their
calves can be kept safe while they roam around looking for
food and water. In these groups, baby giraffes get to know
each other by 'nosing' - rubbing noses. How sweet is that?
Words: Benedict Wood
Illustrations: Eric Smith
They're just
getting to 'nose'
each other
Good one!
Darling, is the
heating on?
Thank
goodness!
They're moving already?
They just got here!
Making sacrifices
Making sacrificesParenting can be tough, but it's an especially hard
ask for African social spiders. Mother spiders and
other females in their group all work hard to release
liquid food from their bodies for young spiders to eat,
until they become exhausted. Then, the older
females are eaten by the babies!
Honestly, no one
told me parenting
was this hard.
Motherhood just
consumes you sometimes.
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