7 Different animal family dynamics

In the animal world, there are advantages to be gained from being part of an extended family. Under the leadership of the most experienced member, the group cooperates to raise and protect its young, to spot danger and to hunt. Learn more about these animal family dynamics from all over the world—from huge to tiny, and from the land to the ocean.

Petty jealousies and wayward offspring are part of daily life in the mountain gorilla family. It is the dominant male, known as the silverback, who settles these conflicts. He achieves this with nothing more than a penetrating stare or a cuff to the back of the offenders’ heads. As his aggression rises, that of his females diminishes and peace is restored once more among the group. 

Mountain gorillas, from the forests of Central Africa, are the world’s largest living primates. Though large and powerfully built, these creatures are gentle and peace-loving. The family is central to gorilla life and the large and dominant male is the linchpin. It is this powerful patriarch who controls the group, defending it against predators, such as leopards, and chasing away rival males.

Adult mountain gorillas may live together for a lifetime, making the gorilla family one of the most stable social groups of all the great apes, but not necessarily the most harmonious. While many females in a silverback’s harem remain with him for most of their lives, not all stay at home. Young females can have their heads turned by another handsome silverback and switch allegiance. As a result, many of the females in a gorilla group are unrelated and so have little interest in each other. This is one of the main causes of family squabbles, particularly at mealtimes.

Females stick together in the elephant world, living in herds under a matriarch. The experience and knowledge of this elder stateswoman, who may be 60-years-old, are of great benefit to the group. She will remember, for example, the location of water holes and seasonal food supplies. In times of danger, such as when threatened by a pride of lions, the group bunches around the young and it is the matriarch who decides whether to flee or confront the threat.

A family herd comprises of up to 20 adult females and their young, including the matriarch’s grown-up daughters and her sisters with their offspring. If the matriarch should die, her eldest daughter will often take over. Adolescent males leave at puberty to form their own ‘bull bands’. When they mature, they become solitary nomads, attracted to a family group only when one of its mature females, or ‘cows’, is ready to mate.

Lions are the only cats to live in a large family group, known as a pride. Native to Africa and India, they live in groups which can contain up to 40 animals, but usually have about 15: five related females and their offspring, guarded by a pair of powerful males. Family life is relatively harmonious with the exception of mealtimes, when tempers fray.

Cubs may suckle from any mother with milk, so orphaned cubs do not starve. Cast out at puberty, males live in the wilderness for some years before seeking their own pride by challenging resident males in a bloody battle. The male lion’s role is to protect his pride from other males, which would kill his young, and predators, such as hyenas.

The queen bee keeps her colony in check by producing special scents called pheromones. These scents prevent sexual development in the workers, which are all females, and therefore repress any sex drive.

There may be 50,000 honeybees in a single colony. Of these, 1,000 or so are idle male bees (drones), and the rest are workers that do just about everything: they build wax combs; collect pollen, nectar, and water; attend eggs; feed larval bees; cool or defend the colony; and carry out dead bodies.

The only individual to produce eggs is the queen, who lays up to 2,000 a day. She leaves the colony on just two occasions. At the beginning of her reign she takes a nuptial flight during which she mates on the wing with up to ten drones. Towards her reign’s end, when the scent she produces is too dilute to maintain social order, she takes 1,500 to 30,000 workers and drones with her to pastures new. Several possible new queens will have been reared by the workers to take her place. The first to emerge stings her sisters to death to become monarch.

Mating among wolves is strictly limited to the alpha male and female of the pack. The rest of the pack, which might have up to 30 or 40 members in exceptional cases, but more usually consists of six or seven wolves, supports the alpha pair, helping to raise and protect the cubs. The pack travels and hunts together over a territory whose size depends on the availability of food: a pack of ten wolves in Alaska, for example, requires a home range of 12,000 square kilometres (4,600 square miles) to find enough food.

Each wolf is aware of its status, but all wolves defer to the dominant male and female. Body postures, such as the position of the tail and ears, reinforce the hierarchy. Older members of the pack will fight for higher status, and even challenge the alpha pair.

The partners of the polygamous male ostrich all deposit their eggs in the same nest. A primary female will then join the male in incubation duties, looking after all the eggs. Should there be too many eggs, she will push away those on the outside, while ensuring her own are in the middle.

When the eggs hatch, the chicks are well camouflaged in the undergrowth. If a predator, such as a lion or warthog, approaches, one of the parents will perform a ‘distraction display’ during which it feigns an injury and tries to entice the threat away from their offspring.

Ostriches are at home in the dry savannah and semi-deserts of Africa and south-west Asia. They travel in bands of 10–50 individuals, the most conspicuous birds being the eight-foot-tall males, with their striking black-and-white plumage. The largest birds in the world, ostriches cannot fly: they run, reaching speeds of up to 43.5mph.

Late afternoon in the bays of Hawaii sees the spinner dolphins living up to their name. One by one they leap clear of the water, spinning on their long axis for as many as seven turns before crashing back into the water. This enthusiastic behaviour is thought to be a kind of roll call, during which each spinner announces that it is ready to depart for a night’s hunting and feeding.

With the register completed, the dolphins head for the ocean where they join other groups to form hunting parties of 100 animals or more. In the morning they return to their bays, where they are less likely to be surprised by predators while they rest.