Fatherhood on display in animal kingdom

        When talking about wildlife conservation, biologists often emphasize the importance of protecting a healthy number of females in a given population, largely because they’re the ones that produce the next generation. Males are sometimes seen as superfluous, since their contribution to the species is often limited to a brief mating ritual, with no role whatsoever in domestic activities like caring for their offspring.
        While that is yet another reason to occasionally feel ashamed to be male, that’s not the entire story. So as we celebrate Father’s Day, it’s time to give credit to a few of the best fathers in the animal kingdom.
        Like giant water bugs. I saw one last month when I hung a sheet in my yard and shined a black light on it to attract night-flying moths. One of the first creatures to arrive was this frighteningly-large

Giant water bug (Renay McLeish)

aquatic bug with the reputation for occasionally biting the toes of people wading in local ponds. As I studied up on them, I learned that some members of their family are considered devoted fathers.
        The female giant water bug glues about 150 eggs to the male’s back, and he guards them from predators and other potential hazards until they hatch. To protect the eggs from becoming moldy, he occasionally climbs out of the water to air dry his charges. He even does something akin to pushups at the surface of the water – with the eggs still on his back – to ensure that the eggs are properly oxygenated. That’s the kind of guy any female water bug would be proud to call her mate.
        Atlantic wolffish fathers are equally devoted to their offspring. These eel-like fish that live in the nooks and crannies of boulder piles about 200 feet deep in New England waters are even scarier looking than giant water bugs, with gnarly teeth and a mean grin. But when a female lays her eggs – as many as 10,000 in large piles hidden in the crevices of the boulders – her mate stands guard to protect those eggs for up to nine months, seldom eating or moving. During that time, all of those gnarly teeth fall out and new equally-gnarly ones grow in.
        Red fox dads play a similarly important but very different fatherly role in supporting their offspring. They’re in charge of teaching the little ones how to be foxes by showing them how to hide and how to capture food. Sometimes the dads even set up foraging tests for their youngsters. He also brings food to his mate when she’s nursing her pups. All of this is readily visible in some suburban neighborhoods where fox skills are being taught in area backyards.
        Perhaps the best-known animal fathers are seahorses, including the lined seahorses found around eelgrass beds in Narragansett Bay. Pairs of seahorses undertake a lengthy and complex courtship ritual, after which the mother deposits her eggs in the father’s pouch. He then broods the developing young for two or three weeks before releasing the hatchlings into the water. And then he does it again with the same monogamous mate. That’s fatherhood at its best.
        While these examples are enlightening and worth highlighting as we celebrate our own fathers, they aren’t typical. More often than not, males in the animal kingdom may look good – like the brightly-colored male birds – but they aren’t necessarily good for much more than a romp in the hay. Happy Father’s Day anyway.

        This article first appeared in The Independent on June 17, 2021.