Wildlife
Paternal care is where the father of the offspring provides most or all of the effort needed to protect, feed or raise the young until they become independent. The most well-known example of paternal care is in seahorses, where the male broods the eggs in a pouch until they are ready to hatch. Primary paternal care is most common in egg-laying species and almost unheard of in mammals.
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Thirst quencher
Namaqua sandgrouse use their breast feathers to collect water for their chicks.
Namaqua sandgrouse use their breast feathers to collect water for their chicks.
Family guy
The male rhea incubates a huge clutch of eggs laid by several females.
The male rhea incubates a huge clutch of eggs laid by several females.
Modern dad
The male midwife toad brings up the babies until he finds a suitable pond.
The male midwife toad brings up the babies until he finds a suitable pond.
Bringing up babies
Darwin's frog dads show real devotion in looking after the kids.
This can't be real… or can it? This is one of those examples where nature is most definitely stranger than fiction. Not only is it the male Darwin's frog that nurtures the tadpoles inside his own body, but because the brooding pouch is in his throat, he literally has to vomit out fully-formed froglets.
Doubling the odds
Shared parenting allows pipefish to produce more young.
Shared parenting allows pipefish to produce more young.
Horseshoe bats
Asian golden cat
Coyote
Plateau pika
Barbary macaque
Homo erectus
Modern and early humans
Neanderthal
Pied tamarin
Tarsiers
California mouse
European beaver
Naked mole rat
North American beaver
African penguin
Emperor penguin
Gentoo penguin
Collared dove
Pigeons and doves
Turtle dove
Turtle doves
Hen harrier
Malleefowl
Great grey owl
Snowy owl
Spix's macaw
Shoebill
Goldcrest
Grasshopper warbler
Jackdaw
Pied flycatcher
Redstart
Reed warbler
Siskin
Song thrush
Treecreeper
Waxwing
Wood warblerOther Life cycle behaviours
Take a trip through the natural world with our themed collections of video clips from the natural history archive.
This is Planet Earth
Narrated by Sir David Attenborough Planet Earth was the ground-breaking series that explored the wild and beautiful parts of our planet like never before.
Garden wildlife
From badgers to butterflies and frogs to foxes, garden wildlife is both varied and surprising.
George's marvellous minibeasts
A video collection featuring bugs and insects in amazing close up selected by insect expert and TV presenter George McGavin, with Goliath spiders, killer centipedes, ants and moths.
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Darwin's frog
Smoky jungle frog
Three-spined stickleback
Leafy sea dragon
Seahorses and pipefish
Weedy sea dragon