Do animals have families? Yes. In many of them, the young learn from the adults around them. Wolves live in family groups called packs, lions live in prides, and meerkats live in groups called mobs. A wolf pack is usually a mother, a father and their pups. The pups are born in a den. 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.

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 elephant herds, other females, not only the mother, help take care of a calf. Lion cubs can nurse from any lioness in the pride, not only their own mother. A baby chimpanzee clings to its mother at first and later rides on her back.

Tigers usually live alone, except for a mother with her cubs, and tiger cubs stay with their mother for about two years. Young tigers learn to hunt by copying their mother. Most young wolves leave their birth pack when they are between 1 and 3 years old, but some stay. A young wolf that leaves home may start a new pack of its own. Young male elephants usually leave the family herd when they are teenagers. Young gorillas usually leave the group they were born in when they grow up.

Father emperor penguins keep the egg warm and safe, balancing it on their feet. After a mother emperor penguin comes back, she feeds the chick food from her stomach. Bonobo babies are born helpless, and their mothers carry them. Male bonobos stay in the group they were born in for life, with a close bond to their mothers. Orcas live in family groups called pods, and young orcas stay in their mother's pod. Orca mothers teach their calves to hunt, and orca pods pass hunting methods and dialects down the generations.

Words to know

• dialects: group sound patterns
• sentry: lookout guard
• generations: family age groups
• pods: orca families
• helpless: unable to cope