Some animals adopt alien cubs left without parents. This kind of altruism is usually found in animal species that live in large family groups. Representatives of single species adopt someone very rarely, but such cases also happen.

The hamster accidentally got into the aviary of the monkey, and she began to take care of him, not allowing other monkeys to offend the animal

Golden retriever Isabella adopted three white Bengal tiger cubs Nasira, Anjika and Sidani, who were abandoned by their mother 15 hours after birth

A chimpanzee named Anyana adopts two tiger cubs at the Florida Zoo

A chimpanzee named Anyana adopts two tiger cubs at the Florida Zoo

A chimpanzee named Anyana adopts two tiger cubs at the Florida Zoo

Suriya the orangutan and Roscoe the dog became friends at an animal shelter in South Carolina. The dog came to the shelter later, and Suriya began to take care of Rosco: fed, walked, protected. This couple was even invited to the Oprah Winfrey show

Photo 9. Siamese cat Amanda, along with her kittens, brings up puppies whose mother has died

A dog from a German farm named Katinga adopted a pig named Polinchen.

Chia raised four kittens

Gorilla Koko has been babysitting kittens since 1984.

Dog Laska from Hamburg adopted two wild boars

Mother pig nurses tiger cubs at Sriracha Tiger Zoo (Thailand)

Cat Smeigel brought up not only her kittens, but also four puppies

A farmer from South Korea saved a small deer, and the dog began to take care of the baby

At the Sriracha Tiger Zoo (Thailand), not only pigs feed tiger cubs, but vice versa

Emmy the cat adopted Rocky the squirrel. Belchenok even learned to purr like a real kitten

In one of the parks in Kenya, a small hippo was rescued when it was washed away from the river into the ocean during the tsunami. A 300-pound baby was fished out of the ocean with a net, went out and was named Owen

"Baby" Owen was placed in an enclosure with a 130-year-old giant tortoise named Mzee ("wise old man" in Swahili). Owen immediately became attached to the turtle and began to seek her attention.

At first, Mzee did not answer the hippo, but over time, he also got warm feelings for him, and soon the strange couple was already inseparable. Hippo Owen perceived Mzee as a father, copied his behavior, slept with him and played

In China's Xiangjian Nature Park, people found a three-month-old baby macaque, which was abandoned by its mother. The monkey was cured. She suffered from apathy and a complete lack of interest in life, she simply died of longing, until one day she made friends with an ordinary white dove.

A dog adopted two tiger cubs at a safari park in Hefei, Anhui Province, China.

In the same zoo, a dog adopted three lion cubs

Dog adopts two red panda cubs at Taiyuan Zoo in China

Pixie poodle feeds little squirrels

Chihuahua named HuaHua adopted a chicken

Dogs Geoffrey and Kipper adopt a deer at Knowsley Safari Park near Liverpool

In the zoo of Shandong city (China), a dog named Huane brings up tiger cubs

A female lion tamarin adopted a different species of monkey at the London Zoo

Animal photographer Ann Yang, while walking through the monkey park on the island of Bali (Indonesia), saw a strange picture: a long-tailed macaque looked after a ginger kitten, as if it were her own cub (bigpicture.ru)

...protected him from other monkeys... (bigpicture.ru)

… took care of him like his own cub. (bigpicture.ru)

The natural world is harsh. There is only one law - the law of survival. Therefore, weak cubs have no place here. Most often, mothers themselves refuse such offspring, but there are cases when healthy children lose their mother for other reasons. In this case, they also face imminent death, unless a miracle happens. And it is done - the abandoned cubs acquire new parents.

From time to time in the media you can read about unique cases of adoption in the animal world, when, for example, dogs take a tiger cub or a badger cub to their upbringing and feeding. This phenomenon, when one species of animal takes on the upbringing of cubs of a completely different species, has received its scientific name in biology - interspecific adoption.

There are many such cases in the world. We will talk about some of them now.

The most common cases are most often associated with feeding dogs. In zoos and kennels, where interspecies adoption is most common, people attach alien cubs to dogs.

For example, in one Chinese natural park, a dog raised several cubs, and quite safely. The biological mother abandoned them because they were born not like everyone else. They were white. The dog accepted the new "calves" without objection. Now, not only the dog protects the cubs, but they will not let her offend.

Another dog of the Labrador breed named Laisha has already managed to be a “foster mother” for 30 different animals, including a porcupine cub, three tiger cubs and a hippo cub.

And in the Novokuznetsk Zoo, a dog of the Cocker Spaniel breed brought up a lynx-refuseee named Dunyasha.

Shepherd Jerry, who lives in a private Yalta zoo, adopted 2 lion cubs after their mother, Elsa the lioness, abandoned them after a fire in the Crimean nature reserve. The animal was in a stressful state and immediately after birth refused to take care of her cubs. Jerry nursed her cubs for several months and made no distinction between her cubs and her adopted cubs.

One Cuban dog named Yeti became famous for her maternal instincts and became a “dairy mother” for 14 piglets. Video

There are cases when some mammals become foster parents not only for other mammals, but also for birds. Of course, this is not so much about feeding, but about care and attention. So a collie named Ben involuntarily became a "mommy" for a brood of ducklings, since she was the first thing they saw immediately after hatching.

Another famous case was when dogs, there were two of them - Kipper and Geoffrey - became foster parents for a deer from the Knowsley safari park near Liverpool. After that, the deer did not leave his "foster parents" a single step.

There are several other cases related to deer. The first is when a Korean farmer pulled a small deer out of the river and brought it home, where a dog took patronage over it. And the second case happened already in Russia, when in one of the zoo corners of Simferopol, the mongrel Shura adopted a roe deer, which was found in the forest next to her murdered mother.

One of them is a family of the cat Muska, her kittens and the wolf cub Kulichonk. He got his unusual name due to the fact that, together with two more cubs, he was born on Easter day. But unlike his siblings, he was born weak and frail. Therefore, the mother immediately abandoned him and began to feed only two. The cub was threatened with starvation. But the zoo staff remembered that a couple of months ago, one cat wandered into the zoo, which had recently given birth to kittens. When a “foundling” was brought to her, the cat immediately accepted him as her own. In addition to cat's milk, the cub also eats baby food, because the cat cannot saturate it in full. Still, wolves are rather big animals.

The next heroine was the cat of one of the employees of the Amsterdam Zoo, who brought up the cubs left without maternal attention, which are distant relatives of giant pandas.

And one cat from the Lviv region became a foster mother for three baby squirrels, who were brought from the forest by the grandchildren of her owner. She gave her whole soul to these squirrels, since her kittens died. And when they grew up and began to climb trees, she ran after them and meowed desperately, calling them to her. Wild instincts nevertheless took over and the squirrels went to the forest, and the cat switched to a neighbor's kitten, who was left without a mother.

But not only domestic cats can show such maternal care. Among big cats, such as tigers, there are also many cases of interspecific adoption. And some of them are very funny, because it's hard to imagine how such a "parent" can experience real parental feelings for his "potential dinner".

A vivid example is a tigress from the Chonburi Zoo in Thailand (2004). She, for some unknown reason, inflamed with maternal feelings for the 5 piglets, which were slipped to her after a short period of time after the birth of the kittens. Pigs for a long time could not get used to the new “striped mother”, but with caress and care she nevertheless achieved her goal and they took her for mother. But, despite this, she did not become a vegetarian. Therefore, the zoo staff, just in case, “dressed” the piglets in striped skins so that the adoptive mother, awake, would not take them for lunch.

The next incident occurred in one of the national parks of Kenya, where a lioness took custody of a cub killed by her own chamois. She defended her "child" from other relatives for two weeks. But still, this story ended sadly - when the lioness nevertheless decided to rest and fell asleep in a deep sleep, the chamois cub was eaten by a lion from their pride.

Not only dogs, but, as it turned out, monkeys can become adoptive parents for tiger cubs. For example, the chimpanzee Ajanta, who herself was nurtured by one of the caregivers of the Rare and Endangered Species Refuge in South Carolina, took care of two white tiger cubs.

They were separated from their mother because at that time it would be dangerous for them to be near her. Their habitat was flooded as a result of Hurricane Hanna, and the mother of the cubs was under stress. Chimpanzee took patronage over them and became the second mother. She not only plays with the "kids" but can also bottle feed them. She borrowed all these qualities of a “caring parent” from her “human” mother.

And finally, another unusual tandem - an elephant turtle and a baby hippo. The case again took place in Kenya, in one of the national parks. After the tsunami of 2005, a very unusual catch was caught in fishing nets off the coast - a 300-kilogram baby hippopotamus.

They named him Owen, after the fisherman who caught him, and after a while he was sent to a natural park, where he was hooked up with a 130-year-old huge turtle. It is not clear why, but the cub immediately became attached to his new neighbor, although it was a male who did not feel any special friendly feelings for him. But the kindness and naivety of the cub did their job. The male tortoise also took a liking to him and now heroically endures some of his childhood pranks.

In life practice, there are often cases when animals in captivity lose their natural landmarks and take on the upbringing of other people's cubs.

The artificial habitat of animals affects them so that females abandon newborns. In this case, they are taken care of by employees of the zoo, or a specialized park, or other animals.

Adoptions by animals

Adoption by animals is not uncommon, there are many known cases of such adoptions. So in several zoos you can see dogs that raise tiger cubs and lion cubs.

At the Taiyuan City Zoo, a dog adopted two little red pandas, and at Knowsley Safari Park, two dogs at once became fathers to an orphaned deer.

Monkeys are experienced nannies

The process of adoption in monkeys is very interesting. They are very good with cubs of all kinds of animals, whether they are puppies, kittens, rabbits, cubs or anyone else. The way a monkey will treat a baby is very individual and depends on the temperament of a particular individual. Some take care of the foundlings and do not allow others to offend them, while others treat adopted children like toys.

Often the loss of one's own child causes a monkey to adopt someone else's. There are those who can steal the baby from the parents.

In one of the centers for the protection of gorillas lives the gorilla Koko, who is called an experienced foster mother, because she went out more than one litter of abandoned kittens.

But it's not just mothers who are adopted. A male macaque from Bali has adopted an adorable ginger kitten.

Pigs and dogs are caring mothers

In a Thai zoo, a pig feeds a brood of tiger cubs.

This year, two Ussuri tiger cubs had to urgently find a nurse in the Sochi Zoo. For some reason, the real mother-tigress refused the cubs.

Cleopatra, a dog of the Shar-Pei breed, adopted the adoptees into her family. Striped kittens, along with puppies, are reinforced with milk, receive a share of the necessary caress and attention.

As you can see, such a touching adoption of animals by other species does not only happen in freedom.

The cubs are concerned about their fate, but those in whom parental instincts are developed try to pass on their skills to their offspring. Most learn from their parents. It is the mother, and in some cases the father, who shows the babies how to chew grass or track down prey, how and when to hide, and when to fight.

Cubs go through a much-needed process of education and upbringing while playing with each other or with adults. Young animals in a friendly fight hone their combat skills, and a mother or father is able, grabbing a presumptuous offspring by the withers, to make him understand in what situations one should obey the elders and recognize the leadership of the leader.

An important factor in the process of education is separation from the mother. Some leave babies almost immediately after birth. As a rule, such animals have a large supply of fat, which allows the baby to survive the first weeks (for example, like this). Other females abandon their grown-up offspring gradually, every day going further and further to hunt, and one day finally leaving the cubs. This is the last maternal lesson - now the animals must learn to rely only on their own strength.

Not all mother animals are affectionate and attentive to their young. Some educate the younger generation with cuffs. Macaques are prone to such non-pedagogical methods. They scratch, bite and drag their babies by the fur. The most amazing thing is that monkeys that were mistreated as children will also raise their offspring. The same macaques, in whose families violence was not used, will not beat their own child.

10708 (44 per week) / 16.12.14 12:16 /
Approximate time to read the article: 3 min.

Our planet is beautiful, diverse and unpredictable, so it is not surprising that various animals can take on the upbringing of alien cubs or even those belonging to a different species. The Internet, television, magazines, newspapers and other media are full of news telling that a cat raised hedgehogs, a chicken took kittens under its wing, and so on. But with the greatest frequency, such cases of "adoption" occur in the most faithful friends of man - in dogs. It is they who very often accept other cubs as relatives.

By the way, ancient history tells of such cases when some breeds of dogs raised others, while the latter did not lose their natural habits inherent in their blood and genes, but were endowed with the habits of foster mothers. Absorbed all their qualities and skills with milk. Such females were given the name "adopters", which, in principle, is so logical. This article will tell you about cases and situations when not only puppies, but also other cubs, were raised by adoptive dogs.

For example, one American zoo became famous thanks to the case when a dog gave birth and, unfortunately, lost her cubs, as a result, she adopted a tiger cub who lost her mother - a tigress due to her death. At the same time, the baby calmly behaved with the dog and was not afraid of it, but she showed all kinds of tender care for him, for example, licking his fur. The big cat cub was rapidly gaining weight and getting stronger day by day, and his foster mother continued to take care of him as if he were her own, until he grew up. A sufficient amount of time has passed, but the excellent relationship between the dog and the tiger has not weakened so far. The fact is that he thinks that the dog is his own mother. Now it is not difficult to imagine how the fate of these two unfortunates would have developed if the employees had not decided to give the tiger cub to the dog.

Meanwhile, in the villages it is considered normal if orphaned kittens are brought up by lactating dogs. Cat cubs are thrown to dogs, they accept them, and become their adoptive mothers. There is always a place for everyone. Dogs are very responsible mothers and raise their cubs until they are old enough to get their own food or eat what the dear owner offers.

But can such motherhood entail any unpleasant consequences for the pupils? Certainly not. Thanks to their foster mother, helpless cubs find shelter and peace next to her warm body, fleeing inevitable death. It is also worth noting that it does not matter at all which animal the cub will be raised with. They are all children. They need protection and food. Dogs, with their endless love, devotion and broad soul, are always ready to shelter at their side anyone who needs her help, especially if it is the owner's order. The health of the dog after feeding "foreign" cubs will not deteriorate. Babies constantly feed on her milk, thereby not allowing it to stagnate in the mammary glands. Therefore, the dog feels great, and there should be no concerns about her well-being.

Forms of education of children left without parental care

After the collapse of the USSR in Russia, the number of children who were left without parental care is only increasing ...

There are kennels in which such dogs save unforeseen offspring. Puppies are born at an indefinite period of time, their natural mothers may die or lose their milk. There are times when a dog does not want to let kids close to him, and is very aggressive towards them. Therefore, the cubs are given to another nursing dog, who raises them as relatives. Puppies are always full. The foster mother does not experience any discomfort. It's kind of saving little innocent lives.

Any female can become an adoptive parent. For example, once a kitten was raised by a monkey. At the same time, she fed him not with milk, but from a bottle, like a person. She turned out to be a real mother. She performed her duties with dignity. The monkey cleaned the kitten's fur, picked out the parasites, fed, played various games with him,and the cat's cub recognized her as his own mother.