In this delightful yet provocative book, Canadace Savage investigates how mammals care for their young. The heart of the book is a collection of irresistible portraits of baby animals, taken by some of the best wildlife photographers in the world, showing the animals alone or interacting with they parents and siblings. We see them from the moment of birth, as they nurse, play, quarrel among themselves and explore the bright new world that awaits their discovery.

Based on the most up-to-date research on parental care and juvenile development among nonhuman mammals, the text invites us to take a closer look at the qualities that make for good mothering in the animal world. It raises pertinent and perplexing questions about the parental care strategies of mammals; describes conception, gestation and birth; and discusses how mothers bond with their infants -- or fail to do so. Do animal mothers love their young? Are they sometimes driven to distraction by the ceaseless demands? Does the quality of the interaction between mother and infant affect the lifetime competence of individual animals, as it does for individual humans?

Mother Nature is both a book about young animals in all their cute-and-cuddly glory and an incisive look at parenting among mammals. Combining a collection of delectable photographs with an authoritative and entertaining text, this book is a delight for both the mid and the eye.