It’s well known that, in many animal species, fathers are little more than sperm donors and do not form a special bond with their children or take part in their care. I remember reading that seahorse fathers have an instinctual care role toward their children. When I first learned about seahorse dads as a child I was told that this was a very unusual thing with respect to the animal kingdom. Other than that, are humans unique in having an emotional bonding and a nurturing relationship between father and child driven by a male parental instinct? Has anyone ever had a kitty couple where the father actually helps take care of the kittens (e.g. bringing food to them, teaching them to hunt, cleaning them, protecting them from dangers, etc.)?
I know that some female animals practice adoption (taking care of children other than their own).
It’s pretty common behavior in birds for fathers to have a substantial role. Penguins are one good example.
Of course, I’d also point out that it’s a well-known fact that the females of many species are just egg donors and there is no maternal bond either. The presence of any bond is actually pretty rare if you look outside birds and mammals.
IIRC, male seahorses incubate the young but do not care for them after they hatch. Like most aquatic creatures, they just release a large number of spawn and then hope that some make it to adulthood.
I’ve seen videos on YouTube where a silverback gorilla at a zoo will take an interest in what the young ones are up to. One took a little gorilla by the hand and led him away from a little human tyke on the other side of the cage. She was antagonizing the wee one.
Wolves, of course, are another example. They live in packs where usually only the Alpha male and female mate, and the whole pack helps raise the pups, including the father. He will participate in the hunts that the pack makes, and everyone eats from the kill.
But birds, as mentioned above, are the best example of a broad range of species where the father plays a key role in raising the young. Not just in the many species of birds that mate for life, either.
I think I remember reading once (don’tcha love seeing that in GQ?) that the writers of Finding Nemo chose the clownfish for their star because the little fellas are such devoted fathers (that part is the GQ answer: clownfish are good daddies).
“…In fishes, care can be provided by the female alone (maternal or female-only care), by the father alone (paternal or male-only care), or by both parents together or in sequence (biparental care, Figure 2). About 30% of the 500 known fish families show some form of parental care, and most often (78% of the time) care is provided by only one parent (usually the male). Male care (50%,Figure 2(a)) is much more common than female care (30%) with biparental care accounting for about 20%, although a more recent comparative analysis suggests that male care may be more common (84% Figure 2(b))…”
What makes a seahorse (or any) gamete a sperm and not an egg? That’s the question rephrased - since not all animals use our X - Y system, what is it about a gamete that we look at and decide it’s a sperm? Size? Motility?
Size, or more accurately, nutrient transfer. Most organisms require at least a few rounds of cell division before the embryo becomes capable of acquiring and processing its own food (even in placental mammals), so one or the other of the parents has to pack some nutrients into its gamete (usually in the form of yolk). Sperm generally do not provide any nutrients to the embryo; ova pretty much invariably do. There are usually other differences as well (ova are usually immobile, sperm usually don’t transfer mitochondria, etc.) but fundamentally the sex whose gamete contains nutrients for the embryo is defined as the female.
THANK YOU! This is something I’ve been asking biologists since I was a little kid, and only gotten blank stares in return. I can’t tell you how much better I feel now. Seriously.
Not father/daughter exactly, more like step-father, but it might be relevant to the OP. I have a male cat-about 3 years old- and we recently got a kitten. He has “fathered” this kitten since we got her (well about a week or so after, since we kept them apart for the first week, worried that he’d try to kill her since he is huge and she is tiny). He grooms her, sleeps on top of her (like a mother cat would do with kittens) and he is teaching her how to hunt. He is an excellent mouser and will often bring a live mouse to the kitten–when watching them, I definitely get the impression he is trying to teach her how to hunt. It’s been pretty fascinating and I’ve checked in with other cat owners who have made similar observations with father/step-father cats.
