Why do animals care about protecting and raising their offspring? If animals have no sense of ethics or morals, why don't they simply just have sex, have the offspring, and abandon them on the spot? I mean, these are animals, right? Why do they care at all about their offspring? There are no marriage laws or child support laws, so naturally if every animal lives purely for self-interest, why then do they protect and raise their offspring?
If you really think about this concept, it is very mind boggling.
The next question is, why do humans care about their offspring?
The reason this subject has to do with religion is because this idea of "love." Most religions are based upon the concept of love for God. But does love even exist, or is it simply a product of biology? Do parents really "love" their kids, or they fulfilling their biological funtions?
Social systems and parental care of birds
The three mating systems that predominate among birds are monogamy (seen in approximately 91% of bird species), polygyny (2%) and polyandry (< 1%). Monogamous species of males and females pair for the breeding season. In some cases, the individuals may pair for life.
One reason for the high rate of monogamy among birds is the fact that male birds are just as adept at parental care as females. In most groups of animals, male parental care is rare, but in birds it is quite common; in fact, it is more extensive in birds than in any other vertebrate class. In birds, male care can be seen as important or essential to female fitness. "In one form of monogamy such as with obligate monogamy a female cannot rear a litter without the aid of a male".
The parental behavior most closely associated with monogamy is male incubation. Interestingly, male incubation is the most confining male parental behavior. It takes time and also may require physiological changes that interfere with continued mating. This extreme loss of mating opportunities leads to a reduction in reproductive success among incubating males. "This information then suggests that sexual selection may be less intense in taxa where males incubate, hypothetically because males allocate more effort to parental care and less to mating".[4] In other words, in bird species in which male incubation is common, females tend to select mates on the basis of parental behaviors.
Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bird#Nesting
If you really think about this concept, it is very mind boggling.
The next question is, why do humans care about their offspring?
The reason this subject has to do with religion is because this idea of "love." Most religions are based upon the concept of love for God. But does love even exist, or is it simply a product of biology? Do parents really "love" their kids, or they fulfilling their biological funtions?
Social systems and parental care of birds
The three mating systems that predominate among birds are monogamy (seen in approximately 91% of bird species), polygyny (2%) and polyandry (< 1%). Monogamous species of males and females pair for the breeding season. In some cases, the individuals may pair for life.
One reason for the high rate of monogamy among birds is the fact that male birds are just as adept at parental care as females. In most groups of animals, male parental care is rare, but in birds it is quite common; in fact, it is more extensive in birds than in any other vertebrate class. In birds, male care can be seen as important or essential to female fitness. "In one form of monogamy such as with obligate monogamy a female cannot rear a litter without the aid of a male".
The parental behavior most closely associated with monogamy is male incubation. Interestingly, male incubation is the most confining male parental behavior. It takes time and also may require physiological changes that interfere with continued mating. This extreme loss of mating opportunities leads to a reduction in reproductive success among incubating males. "This information then suggests that sexual selection may be less intense in taxa where males incubate, hypothetically because males allocate more effort to parental care and less to mating".[4] In other words, in bird species in which male incubation is common, females tend to select mates on the basis of parental behaviors.
Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bird#Nesting
