Animals that support disabled offspring?

badbob · 13 Jul 2008 at 13:39

Apart from humans are there any animals which'll continue to feed and protect offspring or those in the group with physical or mental problems? Perhaps apes?

quicksort · 13 Jul 2008 at 14:13

Flamingos are the only one I know of.

Greenlizard0 · 13 Jul 2008 at 14:21

I was going to say if any other animals, it'd be ones closest to us i.e. monkeys and whatnot.

Perhaps if they're alive then all offspring will be looked after by those that actively look out for their offspring.

Parsley · 13 Jul 2008 at 15:31

Pretty sure Hyenas do.

I base that on a wildlife program I caught once quite late on the BBC, the pack was looking after an older pack member that was missing a leg (and was therefore slow and pretty much useless) as well as feeding an incredibly ill pup.

Freeman · 13 Jul 2008 at 16:30

I'm not sure about apes. I'm sure I watched a documentary a few years ago where a mentally retarded baby was rejected by it's mother. Both were captive.

Nitefly · 13 Jul 2008 at 16:35

The canids have a tendancy to do this when members of their packs are wounded.

SexyGreyFox · 13 Jul 2008 at 17:34

Surely they will all only put up with it for so long though?
I can remember watching Ostrich's and they spent ages with a sick baby but in the end abondened it because it would get them all killed.

Tefal · 13 Jul 2008 at 17:36

Corran said:
Pretty sure Hyenas do.

I base that on a wildlife program I caught once quite late on the BBC, the pack was looking after an older pack member that was missing a leg (and was therefore slow and pretty much useless) as well as feeding an incredibly ill pup.

yeah i saw that, but i remember them saying it was incredibly rare for them to support the one with the missing leg.

And he was only tolerated as he could just about keep up (but obviously not hunt)