Wild Moms: Motherhood in the Animal Kingdom

Biologist Bondar, author of Wild Sex and TV/web host, tours the animal kingdom to explore motherhood. The story takes an appropriate natural arc, beginning with the initial phases of gestation, and on to breastfeeding and toddler rearing, then menopause, and finally to offspring mortality and moms' grief response. Other topics include parasitism, absentee mothering, and lactation. There's much to amaze readers, whether it be frogs who swallow their larvae, brood them in their stomachs, and give birth by "propulsive vomiting; or mole rat "queens" who raise their young in colonies with the help of socially and chemically coerced subordinates. A running theme is "biological fitness"—how organisms ensure reproductive success in the face of dilemmas such as food shortages, predators, or exploitation by members of their own species. With a lively and informative touch, Bondar often names hypotheses, doesn't shy away from using precise biological terminology, and supports the text with 25 pages of references.