PRAIRIE DOG WITH THE HELP OF GRANDPARENTS AND UNCLES
WILD DOGS A PUPPY LOOKING FOR A NEW FAMILY
WOODLOUSES TWO UNEXPECTED LOVING PARENTS
ANTS ONE MOTHER, MANY DAUGHTERS
DUNNOCKS AS LONG AS THE CHICKS ARE WELL
THREE-SPINED STICKLEBACKS A SINGLE (AND COMBATIVE) DAD
HORNBILLS WHEN MUMMY GOES TO WORK
AFRICAN BUFFALO DEFENDING THE WEAKEST
BLACK-STRIPED CAPUCHINS THE JOYFUL COUPLE HAS ADOPTED A LITTLE ONE
LEYSAN ALBATROS
WHAT A FAMILY!:
A chick with two mothers.
On the shores of the Hawaiian Islands, where the blue of the sky blends with that of the ocean, live families of Laysan albatrosses. Many of these-even three out of ten families-are composed of two mothers who, during mating season, build cozy nests in the golden sand, gathering twigs and seaweed to house future chicks. Although they do not have a male to mate with, they do not lose heart: with a little luck, they manage to find one far away so as to fertilize their eggs.
Then when, after more than two months of hatching, the baby arrives, the two mothers take turns warming it up and feeding it with small crustaceans they catch from the sea. These special families seem to form when males on the islands are scarce. In this way, by creating families with female parents, the albatrosses are able to hatch as many eggs as possible.
TWO FEMALES TO RAISE ALL THE CHICKS
NOT JUST HAWAII a few specimens also live in Mexican and Japanese islands
DIMENSIONS
80 cm long with a wingspan of nearly 2 meters
AND SO EACH CHICK IS GUARANTEED ALL THE LOVE AND CARE IT DESERVES.
THEY EAT... mostlyfish
FLAMINGOES
WHILE MOM AND DAD ARE AT WORK
WHAT A FAMILY!: An extendedfamily.
SCIENTIFIC NAME Phoenicopterusspp THEY EAT mainlyplankton, which gives them the typical color
Cracking the egg, the flamingo chick comes out into the open air and looks out at the world for the first time: the first thing it sees are the large curved beaks and loving eyes of its parents. In the flamingo family, both parents care for the baby, who at this age looks like a white, quivering tennis ball, with two pretty pink legs sticking out from underneath and, above, a pointed beak. Mother and father feed it with a special gruel produced in their throats, called flamingo milk. After a week or two of this treatment, the chick is already a beautiful gray bird that can leave the house and go off to find friends to play with.
The parents let it, because they have other things to do, such as look for food. And also because the young are safe, constantly kept in check by the entire colony.
THEY LIVE...
Near coasts, in Asia, Central and South AfricaAmerica, and the
HEIGHT up to 1.4 m
WEIGHT upto3,5kg
FLAMINGO COMMUNITIES ARE IN FACT LIKE A LARGE FAMILY OF HUNDREDS AND HUNDREDS OF INDIVIDUALS WHO WATCH THAT THE YOUNG DO NOT GET HURT.
SEAHORSES
SCIENTIFIC NAME Hippocampus spp
DADDY SEAHORSE CARRIES THE EGGS INSIDE HIM UNTIL THE HATCHLINGS ARE BORN.
WHAT A FAMILY!: a dad with a... babybump
When they decide to become moms and dads, seahorses hang out among swaying strands of seaweed and sea plants. They approach, brush up against each other, and for days court each other with sinuous movements, vibrating, lighting up with bright colors and engaging in ancient dances. When the right moment comes, the two rise to the surface of the sea moving in a spiral, almost as if in a waltz. Then it happens in an instant, and it is something very rare in the fish world: she deposits her eggs in a sac in his body, where they are fertilized. And so, swimming in the shallow seas, you may happen to come across these “pregnant” males wandering around with their bellies as they give oxygen, nourishment and protection to the young they carry.
Theirs is exhausting, but necessary work to raise the offspring. At the moment of “birthing,” thousands of miniature seahorses may emerge from their father, who, after a quick glance at the parents, will immediately
NOT JUST SEAHORSES THE MALES OF AN AFRICAN FISH, THE BLACK-CHINNED TILAPIA, ALSO HATCH EGGS, BUT IN THEIR MOUTHS.
CAPUCHINS MONKEYS
NOME SCIENTIFICO: Sapajuslibidinosus
AMONG CERTAIN ANIMALS ORPHANS ARE ADOPTED, EVEN IF THEY ARE OF A DIFFERENT SPECIES.
WHAT A FAMILY!: alucky adoption
Among the bearded capuchin monkeys living in the thickets of the Brazilian savannah, families normally consist of a father and his many wives who carry their offspring clinging tightly to their bellies or back hairs. One day, however, it happened that a young capuchin monkey, jumping from branch to branch, stumbled upon a baby marmoset, a small, expressive-eyed primate with two funny white tufts on either side of its snout. The marmoset had lost its family and would certainly die.
The capuchin had no doubts: she loaded the little monkey on her rump. From that day on, this one learned to hold on to the new mother’s fur and grow with her. If at first the other capuchin monkeys felt dismayit is certainly not common for animals of one species to adopt cubs of another - they did not show it. And the young marmoset grew up happy in the new family that had adopted her. So much so that the men who first observed her gave her a name: Fortunata.
