Seven weird animal dads who break the rules

whimsical and – From “midwife” hamsters to jacana fathers that incubate eggs under the wing, these seven animals show that dad duty in nature can be hands-on, long-distance, and sometimes downright astonishing.

On Father’s Day, the animal kingdom refuses to play by the usual script. In many species, fathers contribute little beyond mating. But elsewhere, dad is the one building the nest, guarding the eggs, ferrying young to safer water—or even carrying the next generation inside his own body.

Karen McDonald. the STEM education program coordinator at the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center (SERC). points out that parenting patterns vary widely. In birds, males and females of 80 percent of species parent their young. In frogs and toads that parent, males take the lead about half the time.

That hands-on role can also matter for evolution. When brooding or incubating falls to males—or when fathers closely watch fertilized eggs—McDonald says a lot of it comes down to certainty. “A lot of that has to do with being sure he’s the dad,” she explains. “He’s the one who gets to fertilize and to make sure that those are his offspring.”.

The result is a parade of dads that are sweet, strange, and sometimes strangely functional.

Djungarian hamster fathers act as “midwives.”

The Djungarian hamster. Phodopus campbelli. is found in Asia—and its dads are known to be “midwives.” Males use their paws to help pull their young from birthing mothers. a behavior highlighted by journalist Elah Feder in a Scientific American Science Quickly podcast shared last year. After the pups are born. the dad carries each one to a warm nest inside the burrow and helps keep them warm.

Jacana fathers incubate and transport chicks under their wing.

Sometimes fatherhood comes with unusual real estate. Jacanas—often nicknamed “Jesus birds” for their wide feet and their ability to glide across lily pads—are among nature’s most involved dads. McDonald says they build a nest, incubate eggs, and transport the young under their wings. She adds a detail that turns cute into creepy in an instant: jacana chicks’ feet stick out from the father’s wing. The birds also have “little spurs” on their wings that they use to defend their chicks.

A 400-meter trip helps some poison frog dads find nurseries.

Male poison dart frogs may look like they’re just doing the usual father thing—carrying offspring from land to water by transporting tadpoles on their backs. But research shared by Scientific American in 2019 found that some poison frog dads travel as far as 400 meters. or about a quarter of a mile. in what appears to be a search for ideal nursery grounds. That distance is about 10,000 times their body length.

Three-spined stickleback dads build, fertilize, guard, oxygenate, and relocate.

In a different corner of the freshwater world, the three-spined stickleback, Gasterosteus aculeatus, shows how far “dad duty” can go. McDonald describes how males shelter offspring by building a “fun little tunnel” made from plants. twigs. and other material held together by a gluelike substance produced by the fish. After a female deposits eggs into this tunnel, the male fertilizes them.

But the job continues. “He guards them and protects them and oxygenates the eggs in the little tunnel,” McDonald says. If the fry drift too far once they hatch, she adds, “he’ll actually pick them up in his mouth and put [them] back in the den.”

Pipefish dads gestate like seahorses—without the fame.

Seahorses are the poster animals for male pregnancy: they carry. feed. and hatch eggs directly from a pouch on their body. Pipefish—close relatives that many people rarely notice—do a remarkably similar job. McDonald explains that pipefish care for the young, but they don’t get the same attention as seahorses. “They care for the young, just like seahorses, but nobody thinks of them,” she says. “Everybody thinks of seahorses.”.

Eastern hellbender fathers sometimes eat their clutches.

Not all fatherhood stories stay tender. The eastern hellbender, Cryptobranchus alleganiensis alleganiensis—the largest salamander in North America and about two feet long—usually sees males watching over eggs in this subspecies.

But recent research reported by Scientific American in 2023 found that some dads resort to eating their clutches. The likely trigger, the reporting suggests, is environmental stressors such as water pollution or vegetation loss.

Darwin’s frog dads swallow eggs and carry them in a vocal pouch.

And then there’s Darwin’s frog. Rhinoderma darwinii. a species so committed to the idea of carrying that it does it the hard way. After the male fertilizes eggs. he “swallows” them and “carries them around in his vocal sac” until the time is right to release them as juveniles. McDonald sums up the wonder simply: “I love nature.”.

The thread running through all these animals is that fatherhood in the wild isn’t one thing. In birds, it’s widespread—males and females of 80 percent of species parent their young. In frogs and toads that parent, males take the lead about half the time. And in the species showcased here. that leading role can be literal labor: helping births. incubating eggs. guarding and oxygenating embryos. traveling long distances for nursery grounds. gestating young. and even repositioning whole batches of fry.

Some of these dads are gentle and meticulous. Others are driven by pressure—like pollution and habitat change—that turns care into a grim survival calculation. On Father’s Day, the animal kingdom offers a reminder that “dad” can mean many different things, but it always comes with stakes.

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