25 Photos of Wild Animal Parents and Their Young, With Facts

25 Amazing Pictures Of Wild Animals And Their Babies

Parental care in the wild takes many forms. Some animals carry their young on their backs for months, some guard nests full of hatchlings, and some simply keep their offspring warm under a wing until they can cope alone. The 25 photographs below show mothers, and a few fathers, from bears and big cats to otters, pangolins and plovers, each with a short note on how that species raises its young and what the photo shows.

It is tempting to read human feelings into these images, and scientists are careful about words like "love". What is well established is that mammals and birds share much of the biology of attachment: hormones such as oxytocin and prolactin help drive nursing, brooding and protective behaviour, and young animals that stay close to a parent are far more likely to survive. Whether or not we call it love, the care is real and costly for the parent.

The photos were taken by many different photographers, credited under each image. Several are from zoos or reserves, and some are taken in the wild with long lenses.

Big cats

Two lionesses stroll down a dirt track while a tiny cub trails behind. Lions are the only truly social big cats: related females form the core of a pride and often nurse and guard each other's cubs. Even with that help, many cubs die in their first year, so staying close to the adults matters. (Photo via dailymail.co.uk)

A lioness pins her cub gently to the ground in play. Wrestling and pouncing games teach young lions the moves they will later need for hunting and for holding their place in the pride. (Photo: Daniel Münger)

A tigress grooms her cub with her rough tongue. Unlike lions, tigers raise their young alone; the mother hunts, feeds and protects the cubs for around two years before they leave to find their own territory. (Photo: Michael Nichols)

Bears and their cubs

A polar bear mother carries her cub out of a den, then curls around it in the snow. Polar bear cubs are born in midwinter in a snow den, weighing well under a kilogram, and stay inside nursing for months before emerging in spring. They remain with their mother for about two and a half years, learning to hunt seals on the sea ice. (Photos credited to Anton Belovodchenko)

A brown bear swims with her cub pressed against her chest. Cubs can swim from an early age but tire quickly, so they stay close to their mother in deep water. (Photo: Marco Mattiussi)

Nose to nose in a green meadow, a brown bear and her cub share a quiet moment. The photographer, Tin Man Lee, is known for his images of coastal brown bears; this one is marked 2013. Mother brown bears are fiercely protective because adult males sometimes kill cubs. (Photo: Tin Man Lee)

A brown bear and her small cub both stand upright to look at something in the forest. Standing gives bears a better view and a better sense of smell; it is a sign of curiosity, not aggression. Cubs copy almost everything their mother does, which is how they learn what to eat and what to avoid. (Photo: Edwin Kats)

Parents that carry their young

A Virginia opossum walks along a fence with a whole litter clinging to her back. It is the only marsupial living north of Mexico and the northernmost marsupial in the world. Pregnancy lasts just under two weeks, the tiny young then spend about two and a half months in the pouch, and afterwards they ride on their mother until they are four or five months old. (Photo: Jeanette DiAnda)

A pangolin carries her baby on her tail. Young pangolins cling to their mother's tail or back when she moves around and leave the burrow riding this way. Sadly, pangolins are often called the most trafficked mammals in the world because of demand for their scales and meat, and all species are now listed on CITES Appendix I, which bans commercial international trade. (Photo via Imgur)

A swan floats with her cygnets tucked among her raised wing feathers. Swans let young cygnets ride on their backs to rest, stay warm and keep out of reach of pike and other predators below. (Photo via dailymail.co.uk)

Dozens of baby gharials crowd onto an adult's head in the Chambal River, India. The photo, by Udayan Rao Pawar, who entered in the 11–14 age category, won the 2013 Young Wildlife Photographer of the Year grand title. The adult is a large female that cared for the hatchlings. Gharials are critically endangered, with only about 200 breeding adults left, mostly on the Chambal. (Photo: Udayan Rao Pawar)

A sandhill crane chick rides on its parent's back among tall reeds. Crane chicks can leave the nest within hours of hatching, yet they stay with their parents for nine to ten months, migrating with them and learning feeding sites. (Photo: Jim Ridley, 2009)

A squirrel holds a hairless newborn in her mouth at the edge of a nest. Squirrel mothers often move their litters to a new nest if the old one is disturbed or infested, carrying the young one by one. (Photo via pensivesquirrel.wordpress)

Life on the water

Sea otter pups float on their mothers' chests, as these two photos show. A pup is usually born in the water and spends its first weeks resting on its mother while she grooms it almost constantly. Sea otters have the densest fur of any animal, up to about 150,000 hairs per square centimetre, which keeps them warm without blubber. Pups usually become independent at six to eight months. (Photos: Chuck Babbitt; via hqwide, Alaska)

Seen from below the surface, a hippo mother and her calf walk along the bottom of a pool. Hippos cannot really swim; they push off the bottom and float. Calves can nurse underwater, closing their ears and nostrils, and stay close to their mothers for protection. (Photo via dailymail.co.uk)

Touch, play and family bonds

A young giraffe leans its head against its mother. Giraffe calves arrive after a pregnancy of around 15 months, drop about two metres at birth and are usually standing within an hour. (Photo: Jan Pelcman)

An elephant calf walks under its mother's trunk in this black-and-white portrait. Elephant calves are born after a pregnancy of almost two years and are raised by the whole family group, with aunts, sisters and older daughters helping. The trunk is used to guide, comfort and reassure. (Photo: Laurie Rubin)

A fox cub tugs at its parent's tail. Red fox kits are born in spring in an earth den, and both parents bring food. Play like this builds strength and hunting reflexes before the young disperse in autumn. (Photo: Igor Shpilenok)

Three prairie dogs hug and touch faces at their burrow. Prairie dogs live in large colonies split into family groups, and this "kiss" of touching mouths is thought to help members recognise each other. (Photo: Wolfgang von Vietinghoff)

Two small rodents, one carrying a blade of grass, meet beneath a shrub. The striped coat suggests a striped grass mouse, a southern African species in which fathers have been observed helping to warm and groom the pups. (Photo: Andre Pretorius)

Birds that shelter their chicks

A green pigeon perches with two fluffy chicks tucked under its wings. In pigeons and doves, both parents feed chicks on "crop milk", a protein-rich secretion from the throat pouch, so fathers share the feeding from the start. (Photo: Ric Seet)

A piping plover crouches over its chicks, so that only a row of little legs shows beneath. Plover chicks leave the nest within hours and find their own food, but they still shelter under a parent for warmth and safety. Piping plovers are protected in the United States, listed as threatened or endangered since 1985. (Photo: Michael Milicia)

Emperor penguin chicks huddle in the middle of a crowd of adults. Huddling shares heat during the Antarctic winter, and older chicks gather in crèches while the parents fish at sea. The photo comes from John Downer Productions, which filmed penguin colonies with hidden cameras. (Photo: Frederique Olivier/John Downer Productions)

Fast and slow ways to raise young

Ecologists Robert MacArthur and E. O. Wilson introduced the terms r-selection and K-selection in 1967. Roughly, "r" species produce many offspring that grow up fast with little care, while "K" species have few young, invest heavily in each and raise them slowly. Most animals in this gallery, and humans too, sit towards the slow, high-care end.

The idea is useful but simplified. Since the 1990s, biologists have mostly replaced the r/K model with broader life-history theory, which looks at how mortality at different ages shapes growth and reproduction. Many researchers now prefer to talk about a "fast–slow" continuum. The opossum, with a dozen young and a short life, and the elephant, with one calf every few years, show the two ends clearly.

Many of these animals are under pressure from habitat loss, poaching and climate change: polar bears depend on shrinking sea ice, gharials on a single river system, and pangolins on enforcement against trafficking. You can read more about threatened animals, some surprising animal facts, and lesser-known species here and here.

Sources: Photographers as credited: Anton Belovodchenko, Jeanette DiAnda, Igor Shpilenok, Ric Seet, pensivesquirrel, Marco Mattiussi, Jan Pelcman, Laurie Rubin, Michael Milicia, Chuck Babbitt, hqwide, Tin Man Lee, Wolfgang von Vietinghoff, Udayan Rao Pawar, Daniel Münger, Andre Pretorius, Frederique Olivier/John Downer Productions, Imgur, Jim Ridley, Michael Nichols, Edwin Kats; Daily Mail (lions, swan, hippo). Facts: Natural History Museum: Mother's little headful (2013) · US Fish & Wildlife Service: Piping plover · Cornell Lab: Sandhill crane · Wikipedia: Sea otter · Wikipedia: Virginia opossum · Wikipedia: Pangolin · Wikipedia: r/K selection theory