CLIVE ROOTS has been a zoo director for many years. He has travelled the world collecting live animals for zoo conservation programmes. He has acted as a planning and design consultant for numerous zoological gardens and related projects around the world, and has written many books on zoo and natural history subjects.

Animal Parents examines how animals care for their young to ensure their survival, care that is as varied as is animal life on earth. The book provides a thorough guide on the behaviour of animal parenting, and helps readers understand how vertebrates raise and nurture their young. Perfect for students and general readers, "Animal Parents" is illustrated with both colour and black and white illustrations of the animals. The book examines a wide variety of behaviours, including: fish that carry their eggs in their mouths to protect them; male seahorses that incubate their mate's eggs in a stomach pouch; frogs that make bubble nests to keep their eggs moist; snakes that shiver to raise their body temperature a few degrees to incubate their eggs; birds that bury their eggs in a mound of soil and vegetation, and check the temperature with their beaks, while others shed feathers on their bellies so they can warm their eggs; and mammals that exhibit a wide ranges of behaviours, from species in which babies may be hidden in a den or carried with their mothers, to those that simply leave their offspring on an ice flow.