A Natural History of Parenting: From Emperor Penguins to Reluctant Ewes, a Naturalist Looks at Parenting in the Animal World and Ours

by Susan Allport

"We humans parent our young longer than any other animal on earth. For us, parenting is such an essential part of reproduction that we tend to think of parenting as an essential part of all reproduction. . . . Most creatures living on the earth today do not bother with such things at all. Beyond producing good-sized eggs and finding, perhaps, a suitable spot to lay them, most animal parents never give their young any kind of care. They never even see their young. And were they to see them, they would be much more inclined to eat them than to offer them food, protection, or guidance."

In A Natural History of Parenting,Susan Allport, a naturalist and science writer, explores the exciting and often startling dynamics of maternal and paternal behavior among the species.
  
When one of the ewes Allport was raising refused to mother her new lamb, she was forced to reconsider many of her preconceptions about the world of parenting. She  began to explore the roots of parental instincts across the broad spectrum of the animal kingdoms. In A Natural History of Parenting, she examines the awesome diversity of nature to reveal what we share with insects, birds, and other animals, and, just as important, how we differ from them.

Allport's study takes the reader from caves in Texas filled with twenty million bats to huge tanks of beluga whales at the New York Aquarium, from the icy reaches of East Greenland where Arctic wolves raise their young to ant nests where huge labor pools have led to primitive infant care. Along the way, she gathers research on myriad creatures--beavers and wasps, birds and elephants, frogs and humans--to show us a magnificent variety of parental behavior among species, from a male emperor penguin forgoing nourishment to spend weeks protecting an egg balanced on the top of his feet to the manifestations of the human female's "nesting instinct.

Susan Allport is the best kind of science writer--knowledgeable, inquisitive, and entertaining. This invaluable book will ensure that you never again think in the same way of how and why we nurture our young.

"Susan Allport tackles a complex subject head on with penetrating analysis. Her acute observations, introspection, and logical conclusions capture the essence of the whole spectrum of understanding parenting, and make major contributions to the delicate art of rearing children. Allport has given parenting a fresh and exciting direction. The next century will need just such courageous and responsive attention to the underpinnings of the human society. "        
--Kenneth A. Chambers, zoologist at the American Museum of Natural History and author of A Country Lover's Guide to Wildlife

Genres: Nonfiction, History, Parenting

238 pages, Hardcover

First published February 25, 1997

Reviews

[Fabiana]

Ho comprato questo libro per caso circa un paio d'anni fa, lo accatastai insieme a decine di altri volumi che sono in attesa di essere letti e poi a novembre mi è ricapitato tra le mani ... è stata una lettura molto interessante, sebbene non sia diventata genitore, ho avuto la fortuna di diventare zia circa 11 mesi fa e di ritrovarmi per caso a vivere con una splendida creatura potendo vedere ogni giorno i suoi piccoli progressi.
Il libro riprende numerose ricerche fatte nel campo della biologia, della psicologia e dell'evoluzione parlando delle più disparate specie animale (e anche sull'essere umano), confrontandone i comportamenti dal momento dell'accoppiamento fino alla fase di creazione dell'attaccamento parentale (e del successivo distaccamento), svelando il risvolto scientifico di comportamenti o modi di fare che vengono generalmente adottati, probabilmente solo per esperienze passate o buon senso.

Ho trovato interessante scoprire come i bambini vengono allattati (o non allattati) in varie parti del mondo, perchè i bimbi di alcune popolazioni soffrono di colichette e altri no (questa sarebbe da sperimentare) e poi sapere come i pipistrelli riconoscono i propri piccoli tra milioni di giovani pipistrelli, perchè alcuni tipi di volatili decidono di lasciare le proprie uova nei nidi di altri, il legame che c'è tra una pecora e il suo agnellino ... buon viaggio nel mondo "animale".

[Lisa Thomas]

Interesting stories and studies but still rooted in the gender biased theories of evolutionary biology, behaviorism and parenting theories. If you've had even a rudimentary introduction to any of these theories, there is nothing new in this book. It was a decent refresher course and confirms that SOMEONE, ANYONE needs to conduct different studies, go in different directions, because this is ragged and antiquated stuff.

[Becca]

This book is making me more annoying that usual. Today I told a bored friend, "Did you know that marsupials can produce two completely different types of milk from their two mammary glands? Or that high-society baboon moms are more likely to have daughters and low-class baboons are more likely to have sons, because of upward mobility within baboon troops (p 92)? Or that great-white-sharks, lacking a placenta to nourish babies while inside their mommies, EAT EACH OTHER until they are born??" This book is a wonderful cascade of bizarre and terrifying and sometimes even lovely facts about parenting in the natural world.

Natural selection is the star of the show: the crystalline (brutal) precision of genes surviving or failing-- hacking off useless appendages, dumping runts and abandoning eggs. The world of parenting is tooth and nail-- cull or be culled. Stumble upon small behavioral changes and you may completely change the likelihood of your genes' survival.

And then there's people. I loved Allport's point that 98% of human history (and all of the selective pressure that shaped our behavior, physiognomy, psychology and possibly -- dare I go so far-- culture) is as pre-historical hunter gatherers. Civilization-- what, 10,000 years of it?-- has yet to exert any evolutionary pressure on humans! So our parenting instincts, whatever they are, are best understood by understanding our pre-agricultural ancestresses. (p160).

I enjoyed that this book answers (partially) the out-of-date lacunae in The Naked Ape. How much of what we do is primate behavior? Or mammalian? Or vertebrate?

Another point I loved: precocial animals are born basically mature and independent (think a colt galloping off within an hour of being born), where altricial animals are born immature and completely dependent on their parents (think blind naked baby birds or human babies). Altricial brains are formed mostly post-partum, requiring social learning and teaching-- and making culture possible. Precocial animals are born with their instincts intact, with little learning to be done, and so can't adapt the way learning animals can. 27- "Three quarters of the human brain's development takes place in the real world, an adaptation that has given humans the ability to move into and inhabit every part of the globe and one that has demanded extraordinary amounts of parental care."

I loved seeing some of the studies-- on attachment, for instance-- that I've read about in parenting books, presented here in their original anthropological/sociological/psychological contexts. p170- "Mothers who picked their infants up promptly when they cried had, after a year, not demanding, whiny infants on their hands-- as most psychologists of the day would have expected, as respected pediatricians like Benjamin Spock warned against-- but rather infants who cried less and were more easily quieted."

Some other interesting bits:
67- "Human societies (like all animal societies) exist to make the jobs of parents easier. They exist to create stable environments in which parents can find the resources to live and work and provide for their young."

81- "There is simply no mechanism by which natural selection can act on a species as a whole. Natural selection can only act on individuals and individual behavior."

98- (When the author is three weeks past her first daughter's due date:) "For those three weeks I was in a state of suspension much as drops of moisture were suspended in the thick July air. But, of course, I was much more thundercloud than drop."

147 (Re: three baby walruses at a zoo) "They lay in their cage looking like a pileup on the interstate or a tackle of football players."

163- (re: male/female human division of labor, quoting Jane Lancaster)"With males and females specializing in obtaining food from different levels of the food chain, humans got to eat high-protein, energy-rich foods, yet they avoided the risk of starvation that most committed carnivores run. This meant that not only could males provide for their mates during the postpartum period, but males and females could also provide for their young long after weaning." Also 189: "In some hunter-gatherer societies women provide their families with 70 percent of their total calories. The food they forage is essential to their families' survival, and women are valued not just for their fertility but for their ability to provide. Much of their status, like that of men, derives from activities outside the home. Does it surprise us, then, that women in modern societies might be dissatisfied with staying home and caring for their children? Not only does this reduced role fail to utilize many women's talents but it also seems to render them less essential to their families' survival."

172- "Parents and their care become the environments in which the children develop, the finishing schools of their brains."

[Antonietta]

Un bel saggio, anche se ormai ha quasi vent'anni, che spiega in maniera chiara lo stato degli studi sulle strategie animali dell'accudimento parentale. La regola madre resta quella scoperta da Darwin, la selezione naturale, declinata anche come regola del gene egoista. Naturalmente tra le tante strategie si approfondisce anche quella umana, l'animale che più di ogni altro risente dei condizionamenti culturali e meno di comportamenti innati, pur non essendone completamente immune. L'attaccamento con la madre ad esempio, per alcuni cuccioli è fondamentale che si instauri il prima possibile; pensiamo agli anatroccoli che devono seguire la madre che li accompagna alla ricerca del cibo. In generale i cuccioli allevati fuori dal nido devono riconoscere la madre per avere da lei l'indispensabile sostegno e la madre deve riconoscerli. Ma è così anche per i cuccioli d'uomo? Ad un certo momento qualcuno ha sostenuto di sì, ed ecco che nei reparti maternità si è corsi a fare in modo di lasciare il più possibile il bambino con la madre fin da subito. Poi gli studi sono stati approfonditi, le cose non sono apparse così semplici. Perché se l'attaccamento precoce fosse la regola tutti gli orfani non sarebbero sopravvissuti o almeno sarebbero dei disadattati. Ma le strategie umane per trasmettere alla futura generazione i propri geni sono legate più alla natura sociale e culturale della specie umana, che investe nell'accudimento dei figli un minimo di 15/18 anni.
Insomma, non riassumo tutto il testo, ma mi preme dire che l'ho trovato molto interessante, con alcuni concetti che non conoscevo o non avevo così chiari. Peccato per qualche svarione nella traduzione, non all'altezza del testo.

[Kristina Wojtaszek]

I was completely caught up in the mysteries of biology and parenting and also in the personal tales by the author! If you want to know why females and males differ so much in their tendencies of selectivity vrs promescuity, or why our ancestors adapted altricial characteristics (helplessness in young) this is the book to answer those questions in an informative, yet easy to understand and fun read! Although some of it is like a review of my animal physiology and other such bio courses from college, it also brings to light some surprising aspects of the animal world that I'd never known before.

I definately reccomend this to any parent or anyone who has half an interest in nature and animals.

[Jacqui Lafrance]

A fascinating read informed by research and observation carefully and thoughtfully written about (our) animal behavior.

[Luke]

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[Steven]

This book is a wonderful look into the natural world. Not only does the author cover the various ways that animals have adapted to meet the challenges of parenthood but she dives deep into the science of animal behavior in general. This book is definitely a must-read for anyone that loves animals, science, evolutionary theories and the theories behind why animals (including us) do what we do.

[Julie]

Review to come