Other than man what animal fathers have special bonds with their children after adolescence?

[astro]

Besides man are there any male animals that will give preferential treatment or resources etc. to their post adolescent or adult offspring?

[astro]

Hmmm… I guess man is it.

[thelurkinghorror]

Which females do this after adulthood? Only primates maybe?

Prairie voles are known to be decent dads and semi-monogamous for rodents, although I know know when they cut off support.

[Kimstu]

@astro

Hmmm… I guess man is it.

:dubious: Jump to conclusions much? There doesn’t seem to be much existing research on nonhuman paternal behavior and its affect on interaction with adult offspring, but there’s some. For example:

We found that paternal-adult offspring recognition behavior in mice was dependent on postnatal offspring interaction and was associated with increased neurogenesis in the paternal olfactory bulb and hippocampus. Newly generated paternal olfactory interneurons were preferentially activated by adult offspring odors. Disrupting prolactin signaling abolished increased paternal neurogenesis and adult offspring recognition. Rescuing this neurogenesis restored recognition behavior. Thus, neurogenesis in the paternal brain may be involved in offspring recognition.

[Kimstu]

More details on the above research:

Mated male laboratory mice will exhibit paternal behavior toward newborn pups. If those pups are not genetically related to the male […], he does not form a memory of them and does not distinguish them from strangers when he re-encounters them as adults […]. However, if the pups are the genetic offspring of the male, prolactin-mediated neurogenesis in the dentate gyrus and SVZ during the time of paternal care forms a lasting recognition memory. The neurons born during the period of paternal care are reactivated during the adult encounter […] and fathers will spend less time investigating their own adult sons compared with adult strangers […].

So apparently, male mice who perform paternal care for their offspring will recognize those offspring as adults and will be more accepting of them. Sounds like the sort of behavior you were looking for examples of.

And it makes sense, when you come to think of it: It is less efficient for a male to compete with his own offspring than with unrelated individuals, because the success of his offspring is in a way his own success. Moreover, it is generally less efficient for a male to mate with his own (female) offspring than with unrelated individuals, because of the negative consequences of inbreeding.

So it seems reasonable that it would be evolutionarily advantageous for males to recognize their adult offspring and treat them somewhat differently than strangers.

[Tim_T-Bonham.net]

With horses, a stallion has a herd, which will, over time, come to be largely his offspring. (Primarily female; males are driven off or at best, tolerated, once they reach breeding age.)

I think this is fairly common in social animals that live in herds or packs.

[Kimstu]

@t-bonham@scc.net

With horses, a stallion has a herd, which will, over time, come to be largely his offspring. (Primarily female; males are driven off or at best, tolerated, once they reach breeding age.)

I think this is fairly common in social animals that live in herds or packs.

Are you sure about this? I know that Wikipedia is not always reliable about details, but its description of wild horse herds seems to be almost the exact opposite of what you claimed.

Namely, according to this article, the herd stallion drives out both colts and fillies when they reach maturity, apparently so that he won’t be mating with (and perhaps, in the case of colts, competing with) his own offspring.

Bands are organized on a “harem model” in that they usually consist of one adult male and a group of females. Each band is led by a mare who is dominant in the hierarchy, called the “dominant mare,” the “lead mare” or the “boss mare.” The band contains additional mares, their foals, and immature horses of both sexes. There is usually a single “herd” or “lead” stallion, though occasionally a few less-dominant males may remain on the fringes of the group. […]

Studies of wild herds have shown that the herd stallion will usually drive out both young colts and fillies. Experts who study wild horses theorize that this may be an instinct that prevents inbreeding, so that the herd stallion does not mate with his own female offspring.

[Floater]

I think young adult jackals stay with their parents helping them with the next litter before they set off on their own, if that counts.