Wild Moms Motherhood in the Animal Kingdom

About this book

Being a mom is a tough job – but imagine doing it in the jungle or out on the safari, faced by the ravages of the elements, a scarcity of resources, and the threat of predators prowling at all times of the day and night. In Wild Moms, Dr. Carin Bondar takes readers on an enthralling tour of the animal kingdom as she explores the phenomenon of motherhood in the wild.

A journey through motherhood for the animal kingdom – from the initial phases of gestation and pregnancy through breastfeeding, toddler-rearing, and trying to parent a teenager, then through empty nest syndrome (which, in many of these cases, is quite literal!) to being a grandmother. In Wild Moms, Dr. Bondar answers a whole host of questions about the animal kingdom: How do moms in the animal kingdom cope with crying babies and potty training? How does breastfeeding work in the wild – particularly when a mother is nursing not one baby at a time, but a whole litter? If children with disabilities do not fit into Darwin's theory of evolution (i.e. survival of the fittest), then why do we see mothers from various mammalian groups providing ongoing care to disabled offspring?

Accessible and entertaining, Wild Moms is a celebration of moms everywhere – and a book guaranteed to make readers think about motherhood in an entirely new way.

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Biography

Dr. Carin Bondar received a PhD in population ecology from the University of British Columbia and has hosted a variety of online and television programs: Scientific American, PBS Digital Studios, and the Science Channel. She is currently the lead presenter on Discovery World’s Brave New World with Stephen Hawking. Her independent web series about sex in the animal kingdom has over 60 million views and inspired a popular TED talk as well as her book The Nature of Sex. She lives in British Columbia, Canada.