Have you ever wondered what it’s like to be a dad in the animal kingdom? Visit the Peoria Zoo with YOUR dad this Father’s Day and have a visit with our Zoo dads, Sunday, June 15.  All dads will get in for the price of a child’s admission. Here are some amazing Dad facts from the Zoo that you’ll find interesting.

• A male lion’s primary job is to protect the pride and its territory.  The lion makes it on the list of amazing fathers because he can be defending up to 20 of his babies at one time.  He has to be careful because if another male lion takes over, the new male will kill all of the babies in the pride. The new male will only raise his own offspring, leaving the old male with no claim to future generations.
•  Darwin frogs lay three to 15 eggs every year. The male stays near the eggs for about 20 days, until the eggs are nearly ready to hatch. At that point, the male takes the eggs into his mouth where they enter his vocal sac and soon hatch. The tadpoles develop within the vocal sac for the next 50–70 days. After the young metamorphose, they crawl back into the father’s mouth from the vocal sac. The father then opens his mouth and the froglets hop out onto land.
• Male rheas are polygamous, courting between two and 12 females.  The male rhea then builds a nest where all the females lay their eggs.  The females are then done, but the papa rhea’s job has just started.  He then spends over 40 days and 40 nights watching over the eggs until they hatch.  Even when they hatch his job is still not done.  He alone cares for the striped young, jealously guarding them against all other animals (including humans!) for the next six months. When the young are half-grown they can wander on their own, but generally they remain in their father’s care for two to three years!
•  Marmosets are tiny South American monkeys. The fathers take care of their babies from birth. When the teeny marmoset is born, the father cleans it, but carries it to the mother only when it needs to be nursed. When the baby can eat solid food, the father will feed it.
•  A father Namaqua sand grouse of Africa’s Kalahari Desert flies as far as 50 miles a day in order to soak himself in water and return to his nest, where his chicks can drink from his feathers! Specially adapted breast feathers can absorb up to 40 ml of water. After wading through watering holes to absorb water, the male will return to the nest so the chicks can drink the water from his feathers.

• The male seahorse has a pouch on its stomach in which to carry babies—as many as 2,000 at a time. A pregnancy lasts from 10 to 25 days, depending on the species.  The father even has contractions as the babies hatch.  The contractions help the new father push the babies outside his body.  He continues to protect the young until they are able to live on their own.

If you have questions or for more information, call the Peoria Zoo at (309) 681-3513.