bbc.co.uk navigation

Japanese macaque cuddling her two-week-old baby

Maternal care

Maternal care is where the mother of the offspring provides most or all of the effort needed to protect, feed or raise the young. In egg-laying species, maternal care includes looking after the eggs before the young hatch - for instance a mother crocodile guarding her clutch. In mammals, only the mother can provide the milk that youngsters are dependent on for the first part of their lives, so in many species all the primary care is done by the female, though males may play a part in defending or providing for the female.

Watch video clips from past programmes (29 clips)

In order to see this content you need to have an up-to-date version of Flash installed and Javascript turned on.

View all 29 video clips

Animals with this behaviour

Mammals

Birds

Reptiles

Amphibians

Cephalopods

Insects

Arachnids

Crabs, shrimp and krill

Jellyfish

Behaviours

Other Life cycle behaviours

BBC News about Maternal care

Video collections

Take a trip through the natural world with our themed collections of video clips from the natural history archive.

  • Attenborough's frozen planet Attenborough's frozen planet

    Frozen Planet is Sir David Attenborough's latest exploration into the remote and isolated polar environments.

  • Baby Animals Baby Animals

    With Ooh's and Ahh's galore this video clip collection celebrates a world of adorable animal babies.

  • Nature's record breakers Nature's record breakers

    Animal kingdom record breakers - how fast can a cheetah run, how heavy is an elephant and what's bigger than a dinosaur? Watch amazing video clips from the BBC archive and uncover the fascinating facts about our smallest primate, the longest stick insect and the most venomous snake.

  • George's marvellous minibeasts 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.

  • Wild autumn Wild autumn

    Autumn - a time of great change, of breathtaking migrations, of high drama.

Elsewhere on the BBC

More …

BBC © 2012 The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Read more.

This page is best viewed in an up-to-date web browser with style sheets (CSS) enabled. While you will be able to view the content of this page in your current browser, you will not be able to get the full visual experience. Please consider upgrading your browser software or enabling style sheets (CSS) if you are able to do so.