These Animals Stay With Mom For Years

We’ve all heard of the boomerang kid—the 20-something who
returns from college to live in their parents’ basement—but does
that happen in nature?

Not too often, but there are a few species who stick around mom
for a long time—or even their whole lives.

Take the orangutan^[1], which tends to do
everything slowly, including leaving home.

The great apes give birth only once every seven to eight years,
and the youngster will sometimes nurse until six years old—about
the time a new baby comes along, says Helen
Morrough-Bernard^[2], a primatologist at the
U.K.’s University of Exeter.

When the new arrival comes, the older sibling will “go off
exploring on their own and may stay out overnight,”
Morrough-Bernard says.

“I like to think of this as like a teenager going off to
university and coming back in the holidays. They are not truly
independent but are trying out their independence.”

Girls, girls, girls—the African elephant world revolves around
them. The oldest, largest female is the typically the leader, and
females stay with their natal herd their whole lives.

Like in elephant society, female lions “are the stable social
structure of the pride, and it’s the males that come and go, taking
over prides,” says Ed
Spevak^[3], curator of
invertebrates at the St. Louis Zoo who has also studied African
animals.

By and large, though, Spevak says, “you could have some sisters
and daughters staying with each other for the rest of their
lives.”

Orcas^[4]
are born into tight-knit, female-led family groups called pods.
Females stay in the pod their whole lives, while males leave only
to mate and then eventually return.

A 2012 study found that male
orcas over 30^[5]
were three times more likely to die within a year after their
mother’s death if she was of reproductive age. The risk increased
14-fold if she was over 30. Mothers’ deaths had much less impact on
their daughters’ survival.