There is no doubt that it is around the family and the home that all the greatest virtues… are created, strengthened and maintained.
Winston Churchill
As we have seen, different types of animals have various types of eggs, early lives, and ways of growing up. One important difference between mammals (including humans) and many non-mammals is the care parents give their young. A mother dog carefully tends her pups for several weeks; an orangutan child stays with her mother for at least six years; most parents help their children grow in wisdom and virtue for nearly two decades before they set out on their own.
Life is starkly different for many egg-laying animals, including nearly all amphibians, fish, insects and most reptiles. Most animals (what with 90 percent of all animals being insects) never know their parents and must fend for themselves immediately after they hatch. That does not mean that the parents don’t care – they provide their eggs with the best protection and start possible in life. Monarch butterflies lay their eggs hidden on the bottom of milkweed leaves, giving their babies easy access to their food right after they hatch. Sea turtles bury their eggs deep in the sand in the dark of night to avoid as many predators as possible. Some sharks make special eggs known as “mermaid’s purses” that they attach to the sea floor or seaweed in a safe part of the ocean.
Fortunately, when these baby animals finally hatch, they have the skills and the strength to make their way. Newborn sharks can catch small prey, while monarch caterpillars know just what kind of leaves will help them grow strong. Nevertheless, the world is a dangerous place for a newly hatched sea turtle, trudging with all its might toward the relative safety of the sea; many do not make it. For this reason, creatures who do not tend their young often lay an extremely large number of eggs; each sea turtle female might lay up to 2,000 eggs in her lifetime, while cod fish lay up to 4-6 million eggs at one time!
Of course, not all egg-laying animals are so hands-off with their offspring. Among reptiles, crocodiles are among the most devoted parents; the mother (and occasionally the father) guards the eggs while they are incubating in the sand, carefully carries the hatchlings in her mouth to the water, and then helps them learn to hunt and care for themselves over the next year. A few invertebrates care for their young as well, such as bees and ants that tend their eggs and larvae until they can help the colony; octopuses are known to protect their eggs until they hatch (they have even been observed keeping vigil over their eggs for four and a half years!). All birds stay in their nests for a time – from as short as one day for the cuckoo chick to as long as a year and half for condors. Geese chicks can be seen waddling about in their downy feathers soon after they hatch, while song birds like robins and sparrows are born blind and without feathers, completely dependent on their parents for food and protection for a couple of weeks.
There are even a few animals that care for their eggs by carrying them around with them. Most shark mothers, for example, retain their eggs inside their bodies until their babies hatch, when they swim away as tiny versions of themselves. Anacondas (and many other snakes) similarly keep their eggs with them until the babies hatch – up to 100 of them at a time! Others lay their eggs and then carry them around in another part of their body, like egg-brooding fish that don’t eat for weeks while they carry their eggs in their mouths. The famous seahorse fathers who carry their eggs are another example – after the eggs are fertilized, the mother transfers the eggs to a special pouch on the father’s belly that protects the young until they are ready to venture out on their own. In the case of nearly all of these animals, however, the parents don’t care for their young after they hatch.
Since all animals are made by the Creator, why don’t we all raise our children the same way? Shouldn’t we send our children out into the world as soon as they are born like a praying mantis? Perhaps once they are able to toddle like a fledgling baby bird? At the very least, we ought to be able to get our offspring ready for life within a decade like an orangutan! The reason why different animals raise their children in a myriad of ways is because each creature has its own abilities and needs. A newly-hatched praying mantis, though tiny, has all the skills that its needs to survive in its DNA from the Creator. Featherless baby birds, on the other hand, are not yet equipped to face the harsh world alone. Once their feathers have grown, they can stretch their wings toward the sky. They often still stay nearby, however; not everything important to its success is given in its DNA. Instead, the Creator also gave these birds – and human children – parents that can give them the knowledge and skills to ensure their success when they finally leave the nest for good.