Raised by Animals: How Dolphins Bond, Why Meerkats Babysit, and Other Lessons from Families in the Wild

From a leading animal behaviorist, an often humorous look at the many surprising parallels between human and animal parents
 
In Raised by Animals, evolutionary biologist Jennifer L. Verdolin, PhD, invites parents, animal lovers, and science buffs to explore the wild world of parenting in the animal kingdom—and its implications for human families. Weaving together research on both human and animal behavior, she draws fascinating (and sometimes shocking) parallels in a narrative that’s packed with interesting tidbits.
 
Find out why newly hatched goslings imprint on anything that moves, and how Mexican free-tailed bats can identify their pups among literally millions of others (it’s not unlike how human mothers recognize their babies’ cries)! Plus, gain insight from Mother Nature on the big questions of child-rearing, from birth to “leaving the nest”:
 

• Does attachment parenting have evolutionary roots?
• Do more attractive offspring benefit from favoritism?
• And, how can we better understand our own families?

 
In a sense, we are all raised by animals—and that may not be such a bad thing!