Father's Day Pictures: All-Star Animal Dads

Seahorses

Photograph by Paul Zahl, National Geographic

The seahorse is a type of fish in which the males actually get "pregnant."

After a female seahorse deposits her eggs in the male's specialized pouch, the male carries up to 2,000 babies during its 10- to 25-day pregnancy. Above, a newborn hitches a ride on dad's tail.

"They're fascinating—males have more or less become females, [almost] transgendered," Pagel said. "They're devoted fathers."

(See pictures: "Ancient Pygmy Pipehorse Species Found.")

Published June 15, 2012

Namaqua Sandgrouse

Photograph by Peter Johnson, Corbis

A male namaqua sandgrouse incubates recently hatched chicks in South Africa's Kalahari Desert in an undated picture.

These males have a unique method of keeping their babies hydrated, according to the book  Ecophysiology of Desert Birds.

First a male finds a waterhole and douses his belly feathers, which are adapted to retain more water than his other feathers. Laden with up to 40 milliliters of liquid, dad returns to the nest and summons his young with a call, spreading out the wet plumage. The chicks then "drink" water from his belly, sometimes for up to ten minutes.

(See "Watching 'Sexy' Males Leads to Better Chicks, Study Says.")

Published June 15, 2012

Giant Water Bugs

Photograph by Gerald and Buff Corsi, Visuals Unlimited

Talk about back-breaking work—the male giant water bug, pictured above in California, literally totes around his brood of about 150 eggs until they hatch.

After a courtship of sparring and grasping, these ferocious insects mate, and the females cement their fertilized eggs to the males' backs with a natural glue.

Over the next three weeks, the male becomes a "very effective dad," Scott Forbes, a University of Winnipeg biologist and author of A Natural History of Families, said in 2009. The daddy water bug fiercely protects his eggs and periodically exposes them to air to prevent them from growing mold.

Published June 15, 2012

Black-Necked Swans

Photograph courtesy Julie Larsen Maher, WCS

A male black-necked swan carries a cygnet—a baby swan—on its back while the rest of the brood follows.

Cygnets stay close to their parents for almost a year, and ride on their parents' backs for warmth and protection during the first weeks of life, according to the Wildlife Conservation Society.

The monogamous parents both carry their babies, a behavior especially pronounced in black-necked swans and mute swans.

(See bird pictures.)

Published June 15, 2012

Marmosets

Photograph by Holger Hollemann, European Pressphoto Agency

Baby marmosets seem to pose next to their parents at a German zoo in 2010. Male marmosets in South America not only carry, feed, and groom their twin babies, but also may act as "midwives" during birth, grooming and licking the newborns.

Marmoset dads may be so involved in parenting because of the high cost of birth for the mother: While in the womb, the babies eventually make up 25 percent of her body weight—equal to a 120-pound (55-kilogram) woman giving birth to a 30-pound (14-kilogram) infant.

Though nature's default is female-only care, animal fathers will often pitch in instances like these, when "kids are expensive," the University of Winnipeg's Forbes said in 2009.

Published June 15, 2012

Greater Rheas

Photograph by Andres Morya, Visuals Unlimited/Getty Images

For most birds, females are stuck with child care. But not so for South America's greater rhea (pictured, an adult and baby in Argentina).

Females mate with several males during the breeding season, and many birds will lay their eggs in one nest created by a male. The male then incubates up to 50 eggs for six weeks and cares for the newly hatched young. The dads aggressively guards the babies, charging at any animal—even a female rhea—that approaches.

Because females put such a "heavy investment" of energy and resources into producing large eggs, it makes sense for males to pick up the responsibility of caring for the offspring, Forbes said in 2009.

(Check out National Geographic's backyard bird identifier.)

Published June 15, 2012

Barking Frogs

Photograph by Rolf Nussbaumer, Alamy

A barking frog—named for its throaty, dog-like call—sits at a natural spring in Ulvade County, Texas.

A protective father, the male frog hangs out by his brood for several weeks, wetting the eggs with his urine if they dry out.

In other frog species, males carry their larvae on their backs or swallow their newly hatched tadpoles to shelter them in special mouth sacs, giving the offspring a safe haven in which to develop, Forbes said in 2009.

(See a picture of a frog that gives birth from its mouth.)

Published June 15, 2012

Cockroaches

Photograph by Bates Littlehales, National Geographic

Cockroaches may get a lot of bad press, but you can't call them deadbeat dads.

In species that feed on wood, the parents use the material to build nests and find food for their larvae. Such parental care is "pretty unusual" in insects, Forbes said in 2009.

Cockroach fathers will even eat bird droppings to obtain nitrogen, a necessary part of their diet, and carry the nutrient back to their young (above, German cockroach babies emerge from an egg).

Wood-feeding cockroaches are also tidy parents, sweeping nurseries clean of dead cockroaches and fungi to shield their families from infection.

(See "Cockroach Brains May Hold New Antibiotics?")

Published June 15, 2012

Emperor Penguins

Photograph by Thorsten Milse, Picture Press/Getty Images

Emperor penguin fathers endure below-freezing temperatures and forgo food to incubate their eggs.

After the female lays a single egg, her mate rests it on his feet and covers it with a flap of skin. When the egg hatches, the chick is kept warm under the skin flap, as seen above.

"You could think of that pouch as almost a male womb, except they're birds," the University of Reading's Pagel said. "They're very much like seahorses in that respect: [They've] taken over a role, rightly or wrongly, we traditionally associate with females."

For four months the males huddle together, not moving much, while the females fill up on seafood in the ocean. The females eventually return to help feed the newly hatched chicks.

Both Pagel and Forbes say that animal parents give us insight into how human families work. "We can see ourselves in other animals," Pagel said.

Published June 15, 2012

Next: "Worst" Animal Moms?

Photograph by Gary Meszaros/Visuals Unlimited

Published June 15, 2012