I have seen videos of some of the animal mothers not taking care of their babies after giving birth and ignoring them completely or even acting exasperated with them . Why does this happen? Is it the same reason as some human mothers who accidently got pregnant not being interested in parenthood?
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The more energy you put into one baby, the less energy you have for other babies. In general, this leads to two very different strategies for having babies: some mothers put a lot of energy into their babies, but don’t have very many. Many large mammals (including humans) are like this, as are some birds, and some other animals. The other main strategy is to have a lot of babies, putting as little energy into each one as possible; a strategy used by many insects, arachnids, and fish.
The “few babies much energy” strategy tends to rely on making sure a high percentage of babies live to reproduce: if you’re only having a handful of babies over your lifetime, you need at least two to have babies of their own to ensure your species survival. These animals tend to be either higher on the food chain or communal; and therefore more able to ensure that the babies aren’t going to be food for something else.
On the other hand, the “many babies little energy” strategy mostly relies on having so many babies it doesn’t matter most of them will die. In the case of some spiders and fish, mom will have hundreds, sometimes even thousands, of babies at once – often sacrificing her own life to have a few more (and in the case of some insects, dad will let mom eat him so that she has more energy for more babies).
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