7 extraordinary parents from the animal kingdom – and what we can learn from them

Sign up to our free Living Well email for advice on living a happier, healthier and longer life Live your life healthier and happier with our free weekly Living Well newsletter Live your life healthier and happier with our free weekly Living Well newsletter SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Helen Jukes, author of the new book Mother Animal, which tells stories of parenting, nesting and birthing from the natural world, says: “We tend to carry a particular image of what’s natural when it comes to parenting, but venture a little way into the animal world and an extraordinary diversity emerges when it comes to raising offspring. “The male smooth guardian frog is one of nature’s single dads, and a remarkably devoted one too,” Jukes observes. Jukes says: “This ‘milk’ is bright red in colour – both parents turn visibly paler through the course of feeding, as their white chicks turn pink.” 6. “How’s that for good babysitting?” She adds: “Primed as we are to draw comparisons between ourselves and other species, developing research challenges us to think again about mothering, and about other animals – not just what separates us, but how we’re joined.” Mother Animal by Helen Jukes is published by Elliott & Thompson on February 27, priced £16.99.