While the animal kingdom is full of some amazing specimens, not all animals make amazing dads. It is not uncommon for animal fathers to take little to no part in raising and caring for their young. Some fathers even take bad parenting to the next level and will eat their own young. In this article, we will introduce some of the worst animal dads.
Worst animal dads
For most male animals, life is all about eating, sleeping and mating to pass on your own genes. Some species prefer to mate with as many females as many times as possible to increase their odds of offspring being born with their genes.
This approach means that the males have very little interest, time or energy to use on assisting their mate with bringing up their babies. Some males will even go a step further to increase their chances of producing their offspring by killing off the offspring of other males when they come into a new social group.
However, the animals on this list may often be terrible fathers to their own children and make some of the worst animal dads.
1. Grizzly bears (Ursus arctos horribilis)
Grizzly bears are fierce fathers and do not always show much love or loyalty to their own cubs. Grizzly fathers have been known to kill and eat their own cubs or any other cubs they may encounter. This tends to only happen when food is scarce, but you certainly wouldn’t want to encounter a hangry grizzly bear father!
2. Sand goby (Pomatoschistus minutus)
Sand goby fathers are often left with the responsibility for helping care for their young by guarding the eggs. They appear to be caring and attentive fathers while the mother is around. But this is sometimes only an act and Sand goby fathers will actually feast on their own eggs. They are thought to do this in order to shorten the amount of time they need to tend the nest so that they can get back out and mate with other females.
3. Assassin bug (Family Reduviidae)
Assassin bugs are fierce hunters in the insect world that will sit and wait for unsuspecting prey to walk by. They are also somewhat ruthless fathers. Assassin bug dads are tasked with looking after the eggs, during which, they will begin to snack on eggs on the outer perimeter of the egg mass. But this is all out of love because this practice supposedly keeps the eggs on the inside safe from parasites.
4. Polar bears (Ursus maritimus)
Like Grizzly bears, Polar bears have been known to eat their own cubs. Male polar bears will mate with a female and then take no part in the rearing of their young. They will repeat this process with as many females as possible, and may actually end up killing and eating their own cubs without ever realizing that they fathered that cub.
5. Bass (Family Moronidae)
Bass fathers start out as watchful and seemingly caring fathers. When their offspring hatch, they will stay close to the young fish and swim around them in an attempt to protect them and keep track of them. But this only lasts a few days and the father will then start to pick his own offspring off as if they were just any other type of prey.
Patricia is a wildlife enthusiast that loves traveling and learning about wildlife all over North America and the world. Aside from being writer for Wildlife Informer, she’s an avid bird watcher as well as the owner of several pet reptiles. She enjoys visiting national parks and seeing new sights in her free time.