Amazing Dads of the Animal Kingdom

LAURA ROADY

Outdoor Column

With Father’s Day just around the corner, I thought it would be appropriate to spotlight some of the fathers in the animal kingdom.

While the life goal of a male is to pass on his genes with minimal time and energy invested, some males do stay around to help raise the young. These males usually stay around because the young require extra care in order to survive.

One example is the male red fox. The female fox stays with her young in the den for a month keeping them warm and fed. The dad diligently brings her food every four to six hours until the kits can be left alone.

The father fox plays endlessly with his kits and teaches them survival skills. When he brings food back to the den, he will bury and cover it with leaves and twigs. This teaches the kits to forage for food.

Other creatures take parental care to a new level. The male sea catfish will keep the eggs in his mouth until they hatch. This may take several weeks and he will not eat until they have hatched.

Male parental care is quite common in bird species, more so than any other class of vertebrates. Many males share nest building, incubating and rearing responsibilities.

Others, such as the Great Horned Owl, will bring food back to the nest for the female and the young once they have hatched.

In some species of birds, the role is reversed. The male will build the nest, incubate the eggs and care for the young. Some of these species include the Northern and Red-Necked phalaropes that nest on the Alaskan tundra, the Wilson’s phalarope that nest in marshes of the west, Rails, and the Spotted Sandpiper.

An outstanding father is the emu. The female lays eggs in the nest the male builds and then leaves to mate with another male. He will sit on the eggs for eight weeks and will not eat, drink or defecate until they hatch. He will only stand to turn the eggs about ten times a day.

The male emu loses a third of his weight during incubation since he survives off of stored body fat and the morning dew that is within reach of the nest. The young emus can find their own food within two days, but dad protects them for eighteen months.

The most amazing dad of all is our own species- humans. Dads help raise their offspring for eighteen years until they leave the nest. Happy Father’s Day.