Parental care
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Parental care is a behavioural and evolutionary strategy adopted by some animals, involving a parental investment being made to the evolutionary fitness of offspring. Patterns of parental care are wid
Swallow adult feeding begging young in the nest
Potter wasp building mud nest for her offspring. Each nest is provisioned with food caught by the mother; one or more eggs are laid inside, and the nest is then sealed.
Male giant water bug Abedus indentatus with eggs on his back
Pregnant male seahorse
Altruism (biology)
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In biology, altruism is behaviour by an individual that increases the fitness of another individual while decreasing their own. Altruism in this sense differs from the philosophical concept of altruis
An olive baboon allogrooming a younger one
Cooperative hunting by wolves allows them to tackle much larger and more nutritious prey than any individual wolf could handle. However, such cooperation could, potentially, be exploited by selfish individuals who do not expose themselves to the dangers of the hunt, but nevertheless share in the spoils.
A male peacock with its beautiful but clumsy, aerodynamically unsound tail—a handicap, comparable to a race horse's handicap.
The best horses in a handicap race carry the largest weights, so the size of the handicap is a measure of the animal's quality