Wild Moms

February 15, 2018
A Canadian biologist and mother of four offers a zoological survey of motherhood in the wild.Using a wealth of research on instinctual behaviors, Bondar (Wild Sex: The Science Behind Mating in the Animal Kingdom, 2016) hopes new lessons can be learned about the human species through the examination of wild animals and their processes of parenthood. As numerous as they are diverse, there are no wrong approaches to the multifaceted business of motherhood. These diverse processes encompass the "broadcast spawning" of aquatic animals and the oviparity of amphibians, but the author also discusses the complicated factors associated with the egg-laying systems of certain bird species and the intrusive deceit of nest parasitism, in which a menacing foreign species deposits eggs into another nest to be hatched. Bondar also introduces readers to female mammals within the animal kingdom who must jockey for the prized social positioning necessary for even a chance at reproduction, meerkats that adopt a complex hierarchy of dominance to achieve this particular goal, and female hyenas whose retractable "pseudopenises" make gender recognition virtually impossible. From conception to birth, the author vibrantly analyzes a wide array of breeding practices and rearing methods from the cooperative to the communal; each is intriguing, unique, and "evolutionarily stable and successful." Some of these reproductive enigmas and oddities are positively captivating. For example, many mammalian and primate females can enact a suspended animation state of gestational "diapause" until environmental conditions become optimal for birthing; toothed whales are the only other group of animals that experience menopause "to the extent that humans do." Throughout, the author stresses how many issues that arise within the animal kingdom occur just as naturally in human child-rearing as well. The heartbreaking closing chapter on grieving animal mothers is especially poignant, providing an illuminating coda to this literary embrace of parenthood in the wild kingdom.A study brimming with endlessly fascinating fodder for animal lovers.

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March 1, 2018

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. VERDICT Popular science readers with an interest in evolutionary biology will enjoy this book. As the second in the author's "Wild Series," it will no doubt lead them to wonder: What's next?--Robert Eagan, Windsor P.L., Ont.

Copyright 2018 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

March 15, 2018
Mothers, human and nonhuman, are all around us. Bondar (Wild Sex, 2016), herself a mother and a PhD biologist, examines the myriad roles of motherhood across the animal kingdom. While the majority of the book focuses on our own group, the mammals, Bondar looks at aspects of mothering from how conception is achieved, how individual eggs may be of differential quality (leading to different strategies for raising the resulting young), and how differing females earn the right to become mothers. Some mothers are parasites and never raise their own young, while others form communal groups to raise their offspring in a cr�che. And some mothers are the alphas (or queens) of their group, who as the only breeders have help from all the other females. Bondar also looks at maternal depression and child abuse, animal orphans and adoption, the acts of lactation and weaning, and the role of grandmothers. Well-researched and with a large bibliography, Bondar's study celebrates the idea that motherhood may be the most important job ever created by evolution.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2018, American Library Association.)