Raised by Animals by Jennifer L. Verdolin

Author:Jennifer L. Verdolin
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: The Experiment
Published: 2017-03-14T04:00:00+00:00

Playing Favorites

As I mentioned earlier in this chapter, transitioning from one child to two children introduces many variables, one of which is the opportunity for parents to favor one child over another. I come from a modest family size of two, and it has always been clear that my older brother was the favorite. My cousin and I commiserate on how her older brother is also the preferred child. Ironically, her mother (my aunt) and my mother both complain of how the sun rose and set over their older brother.

How was it that I came to unequivocally understand that my brother was the “golden child”? Well, other than being told how much better he was at just about everything, important resources were unequally distributed between us. He received more attention, more affection, more support in his education, and probably more food. Was the obvious preference for one child over another a peculiarity of my family that has been passed on from one generation to the next? And was it a coincidence that the firstborns were the favorites? Did it have something to do with being male? Or being firstborn and male?

I can rule out any peculiarities of my family fairly quickly. Though not ubiquitous, it is unsettlingly common among humans for parents to favor one child over another. The estimates range from two-thirds to three-quarters of parents exhibiting a preference for one child. Psychologists call this “differential treatment” of offspring.

For chinstrap penguins, we call this normal. Found off the coast of the South Pacific and Antarctica, chinstraps owe their name to the delicate strip of darkened feathers that, when combined with their black heads, makes it look like they are wearing a helmet. Roy and Silo were two famous chinstrap penguins that called New York City’s Central Park Zoo home.

Penguins are typically spectacular parents and these two males were no exception. Roy and Silo were so interested in having a chick that they turned their parental affections toward a rock. Yes, a rock. They were devoted to their rock until a keeper provided them with a real egg to incubate. (As an aside, same-sex partnerships are fairly common in other animals, particularly birds. In those cases where they raise offspring together, they do as good a job (if not better) than mixed-sex parents. That should help put to rest any notions about the parenting abilities of same-sex partners.)

Now, back to those dastardly penguins and their unequal treatment of their kids. It’s a good thing the folks at the zoo only gave them one egg. Chinstrap penguins, and other species of penguin, often make their kids chase them for food, especially if they have two at the same time. Perhaps baby penguins are annoying and the parents are attempting to tire them out? Or maybe they simply can’t cope with begging chicks and are trying to run off? Those would be the most innocuous, even humorous explanations.

Unfortunately, though, these explanations are just wishful thinking on my part. When there are two

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