How Do Animal Parents Take Care of Their Babies?

SECTION 1

🔍 Look at This!

🔍 ANCHORING PHENOMENON

The mother duck quacks and her babies come running. She leads them to water. She keeps them safe from danger. The baby ducks do not know how to find food by themselves yet. They need their mom!

A mother duck leading four baby ducklings in a line near a pond with reeds

💭 Thinking Questions

SECTION 2

What Do Animal Parents Do?

Animal parents do many things to help their babies. This is called parenting behavior. That means the things a parent does to keep its babies alive and safe.

Baby animals are called offspring. That means the children of an animal parent.

1

Parents Keep Babies Safe

Many animal parents protect their babies from danger. A mother bird sits on her eggs to keep them warm. A father penguin holds the egg on his feet!

2

Parents Help Babies Get Food

Baby animals need food to grow. Some parents bring food to their babies. A mother bird finds worms and puts them right into her baby's mouth!

3

Babies Have Behaviors Too

Baby animals do things to get help from their parents. A baby bird opens its mouth wide. A baby kitten cries out loud. These are offspring behaviors.

✦ KEY TAKEAWAY

KEY TAKEAWAY

SECTION 3

🔬 Let's Look and Learn!

🔬 LET'S TRY IT!

You can observe animals too! Here is what to do:

Watch a video or read a book about an animal parent and its baby.
Look closely. What does the parent do? What does the baby do?
Draw a picture of what you see. Write one sentence about it.

Diagram showing three animal families and how parents take care of babies

SECTION 4

What Did We Discover?

When we watch animal families, we see something amazing. Parents and babies work together! The parent does something to help. The baby does something to get help.

Here is what we found out:

How parent and baby behaviors work together in a cycle

Baby animals use sounds, movements, and body signals to tell their parents they need help. Parent animals watch and listen, and then they take care of their babies.

This helps baby animals survive. That means to stay alive and grow bigger.

SECTION 5

⭐ Do You See the Pattern?

Let's look at many different animals. Do you see something that is the same?

Animal	What the Baby Does	What the Parent Does
🐥 Baby bird	Opens mouth wide and chirps	Brings food to the nest
🐶 Puppy	Whines and cries	Comes close and licks the puppy
🐻 Baby bear	Stays close to mom	Teaches baby to find food
🐧 Baby penguin	Calls out with a special sound	Finds its baby by the sound

The pattern is: In every family, baby animals do something and parent animals do something back. They work together!

This same pattern happens with people too. A baby cries, and a grown-up picks the baby up. A small child says "I'm hungry," and a grown-up makes food.

✦ KEY TAKEAWAY

KEY TAKEAWAY

SECTION 6

Animals and People in the Real World

People use what they know about animal parents to help animals! Here are two examples:

1

🏥 Animal Doctors

Animal doctors (called veterinarians) watch how animal parents take care of babies. If a baby animal is hurt, the doctor knows how to help — just like the parent would.

2

🐣 Saving Baby Animals

Sometimes a baby bird falls out of its nest. People who know about bird parents can help! They can keep the baby warm and feed it — the same way its parent would.

Scientists also learn about animal parents by reading books and watching videos — just like you are doing right now! You are thinking like a scientist! 🎉

SECTION 7

📖 Words to Remember

📖 KEY VOCABULARY

Offspring — The babies of an animal parent.
Parent behavior — Things a parent does to help its baby, like feeding or protecting.
Offspring behavior — Things a baby animal does to get help, like crying or opening its mouth.
Survive — To stay alive and keep growing.
Observe — To look very carefully and pay attention to what you see.

SECTION 8

🌟 Show What You Know!

1

A mother robin sits on her eggs in the nest to keep them warm. What kind of behavior is this?

2

A baby elephant stays very close to its mother when the herd is walking. Why does the baby elephant do this?

3

A mother fox brings food back to her den for her pups. A baby fox cries when it is hungry. How are these two behaviors connected?

4

A mother penguin leaves to find fish in the ocean. The father penguin keeps the egg warm by holding it on his feet. When the baby hatches, the mother returns with food. What does this tell us about parent and offspring behaviors?

SECTION 9

🔮 What's Next?

🔮 WHAT'S NEXT?