Nature, as majestic as it is, can be extremely cruel – especially to stepchildren. Lions that take over an existing pride make infanticide the first order of business; dolphins kill off unrelated calves specifically so they can mate with the mother; heck, even in humans, a new partner is more likely than the biological parent they’re replacing to kill or seriously injure a child. The rest of this article is behind a paywall. Please sign in or subscribe to access the full content.

But among all this rampant child-murder, there’s one species that stands out as particularly good parents – and it may not be who you’d expect. “Wolves accept foreign pups,” says Jeremy SunderRaj , a biological technician at the Yellowstone Wolf Project. “When a dominant male dies or is kicked out by an int

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