In Animals
Some species of animals show behavior where individuals care for the offspring of deceased relatives or group members. One species in which this occurs is the chacma baboon, where infants whose mothers have died are cared for by young adults (both males and females) in their social groups. These adoptive parents sleep with the infant baboons, carry them, groom them, and protect them from harassment from other baboons. This behavior may be an example of kin selection or may simply be practice for the young adults for when they have their own offspring.
Read more about this topic: Adoption Agency
Famous quotes containing the word animals:
“Man is head, chest and stomach. Each of these animals operates, more often than not, individually. I eat, I feel, I even, although rarely, think.... This jungle crawls and teems, is hungry, roars, gets angry, devours itself, and its cacophonic concert does not even stop when you are asleep.”
—René Daumal (1908–1944)
“Shall we never have done with that cliché, so stupid that it could only be human, about the sympathy of animals for man when he is unhappy? Animals love happiness almost as much as we do. A fit of crying disturbs them, they’ll sometimes imitate sobbing, and for a moment they’ll reflect our sadness. But they flee unhappiness as they flee fever, and I believe that in the long run they are capable of boycotting it.”
—Colette [Sidonie Gabrielle Colette] (1873–1954)