The amount of time animals spend with their parents vary tremendously. It's not very common, but there are a few species who stick around mom for a long time—or even their whole lives.
The orangutan, for example, tends to do everything slowly, including leaving home. According to Helen Morrough-Bernard, a primatologist at the U.K.'s University of Exeter, the great apes give birth only once every 7 to 8 years, and the youngster will sometimes nurse until six years old—about the time a new baby comes along.
Most orangutan moms let the older offspring stay together for up to three years after the infant is born, but some chase the juveniles off after six months.
When the new arrival comes, the older sibling will "go off exploring on their own and may stay out overnight," Morrough-Bernard told National Geographic.
"I like to think of this as like a teenager going off to university and coming back in the holidays. They are not truly independent but are trying out their independence."
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The African elephant world is another interesting case, as it revolves around women. The oldest, largest female is typically the leader, and females stay with their natal herd their whole lives.
Males leave their family group between age 9 and 18, and since a wild elephant's lifespan is about 56, that could mean up to a third of his life is spent at home.
Like in elephant society, female lions "are the stable social structure of the pride, and it's the males that come and go, taking over prides," Ed Spevak, curator of invertebrates at the St. Louis Zoo who has also studied African animals, explained.
Male lions always disperse for other groups in this fission-fusion society, and about one-third of females will go off to other prides.
While the animal kingdom is full of wonderful moms who care for their offspring, often putting their children above themselves, some take a very different approach.
Most lizards, for instance, "deposit their eggs, cover them, immediately forget they did that and move along," Nassima Bouzid, a Ph.D. candidate at the University of Washington, said.
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Because they have a cloaca, an opening for their reproductive, digestive, and urinary systems, lizards might even think the eggs are "an uncomfortable and weird poop," and never think about it again.
Bouzid said the lack of parental care in most lizards may simply be part of a strategy to have as many offspring as possible in hopes that at least some will survive.
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