To learn how animal families work, scientists watch the same animals for years. Researchers with the Kalahari Meerkat Project have followed one meerkat group for around thirty years, as of November 2026. Meerkat mobs range in size from 2 to 50 meerkats, and meerkats do not have to be related to belong to the same group. Helpers babysit pups for a day at a time and bring them food until the pups are three months old. They take turns, because a babysitter cannot eat while on duty and goes a whole day without food.

Since 1972, researchers in Amboseli, Kenya, have followed the lives of individually known wild elephants, as of November 2026. Each elephant is named, numbered or coded so it can be recognized. When an elephant gives birth, she moves away from the herd. When they return, all herd members inspect the new calf thoroughly. A 2016 study found that Asian elephant families are less cohesive than African ones. They seem to lack a clear matriarch. In elephant herds, other females, not only the mother, help take care of a calf. Calves are weaned slowly, and they may still drink their mother's milk at up to three years old.

Lion prides are described as fission-fusion societies. Members come and go. They are rarely all together at once. Cubs born in a lion pride are twice as likely to survive as cubs born to a lioness on her own. In Yellowstone, wolf packs are most commonly a breeding pair and their offspring from several years. A wolf pack's mother and father teach the rest of the pack how to hunt, survive and mark territory. In spotted hyena clans, females are dominant over males and stay in the clan they were born in all their lives.

Jane Goodall started the Gombe chimpanzee study in 1960, and it is described as the longest-running study of wild chimpanzees as of November 2026. If a young chimpanzee's mother dies, older siblings will often take over the care of a younger, weaned sibling. Older chimpanzee siblings frequently help carry and play with infants. Researchers in Taï forest, Ivory Coast, reported 18 cases of orphaned chimpanzees being adopted by group members. Half were adopted by males, and only one of those proved to be the father. A chimpanzee mother and her young have a close bond that can last a lifetime.

Young Florida scrub-jays often spend their first several years as helpers in their family group. Helper scrub-jays defend the territory and bring food to the young, but they do not sit on the eggs. Beavers usually live in family groups of up to 8 related beavers. Young beavers stay with their parents for up to 2 years. They help with infant care, food collection and dam building. In an African wild dog pack, once pups leave the den they become the responsibility of the whole pack.

Young orangutans may stay with their mothers to nurse for up to seven years, the longest childhood of the great apes. A sea otter mother wraps her pup in kelp at the surface while she is feeding, to keep it from drifting away. An orca calf may nurse for up to two years, and mothers give birth to one baby at a time. Dolphin calves develop signature whistles when only about a month old, which helps them stay in contact with their mothers. Dolphins help sick, hurt or young group members by taking turns pushing them to the surface to breathe.

Words to know

• cohesive: sticking together
• matriarch: female herd leader
• siblings: brothers and sisters
• territory: claimed home area
• orphaned: without parents