Do animals have families? They do, but the families are not all alike. Wolves live in packs, lions live in prides, elephants live in herds and gorillas live in troops. In some of these groups, the young stay close to their mothers for a long time. In others, young animals grow up and leave home. A young gorilla stays close to its mother and shares her nest. A gorilla mother carries and cares for her baby, and infants can ride on her back at 3 months.

A wolf pack is usually a mother, a father and their pups. Wolf packs often have about 5 to 9 wolves, but some are much bigger. Pups are born in a den. All the wolves in the pack help take care of the pups. Pack members bring food to the wolf mother and her small pups, so she does not have to leave the den. Wolf pups start hunting with the pack when they are about six to ten months old.

Young male elephants usually leave the family herd when they are teenagers. Young male lions eventually leave the pride they were born in. When young gorillas grow up, they usually leave the group they were born in. Female chimpanzees usually leave the community they were born in, while males usually stay. A joey begins to leave the pouch at about 9 to 11 months old, and it keeps nursing for months after that.

Many hands can raise a baby. Lion cubs can nurse from any lioness in the pride, not only their own mother. In a meerkat mob, other meerkats help take care of the young. One meerkat acts as a sentry and warns the others of danger. Young meerkats do not know what to eat, so their mother or another adult teaches them. In a naked mole-rat colony, one female called the queen has the babies. The workers help raise her pups, who are their brothers and sisters.

Not every animal lives in a group. Tigers usually live alone, except for a mother with her cubs, and young tigers learn to hunt by copying their mother. Orangutans live more alone than other great apes, and mothers travel with their young. Polar bear cubs stay with their mother for about two years or a little longer. A female lion usually stays in the pride where she was born. Male bonobos stay in the group they were born in for life, with a close bond to their mothers.

Words to know

• community: large group
• nurse: drink milk
• sentry: lookout guard
• orangutans: red-haired apes
• colony: living group