Best: Owl Monkeys

Owl monkey fathers surely rank among the best. As seen in the video below, for many months after birth, the father cares for the young ones, with mom elsewhere. (Related: “Owl Monkeys Shed Light on Evolution of Love.”)

National Geographic grantee Eduardo Fernandez-Duque is planning to study owl monkey fathers’ involvement further to research his belief that the dads help in order to save the mom’s energy for nursing—and even perhaps aid in her recovery after pregnancy. (Also see “Father’s Day Pictures: All-Star Animal Dads.”)

Best: Emperor Penguins

The emperor penguin fathers’ noble parenting skills were chronicled in the 2005 movie March of the Penguins.

Father and mother penguins share parenting duties, with dad taking the job of keeping the eggs warm in the cold Antarctic climate. To do this, the dads have to balance the eggs on their feet, covering the eggs with a flap of skin while standing in harsh, freezing temperatures and blistering winds for several months. This occurs while moms are away feeding and rebuilding their strength following egg laying. 

Best: Seahorses

Any list of great animal fathers has to include the seahorse.

Seahorse males actually get pregnant: The female seahorse lays her eggs in the male’s specialized pouch. He carries up to 2,000 babies that can stay in the pouch for as long as 25 days.

Worst: Polar Bear

The polar bear is a threatened species, with their icy habitat diminishing because of climate change. But even with the arguable need to protect this species, the polar bear males have to be included on a list of terrible father figures.

That’s because polar bear males will sometimes kill and eat young polar bears. And, though there’s no killing in the above video, the adult male has no sympathy for a hungry juvenile.

While polar bear moms give birth and spend about two-and-a-half years with the cubs, teaching them how to fend for themselves, dad has nothing to do with raising the kids. Even polar bear advocacy group Polar Bears International says that “the polar bear father’s only role is to mate with the mother. He does not help dig the den or take care of the cubs.” (Watch a video of polar bear moms and cubs.)

Worst: Gelada Monkey

Some males put juveniles of their species at physical risk. Take gelada monkeys, which, like polar bears, can be very unsympathetic to the young of their species. In the video below, a gelada monkey fighting off rival males uses an infant—not necessarily his own offspring—as a defense, harming the youngster.

Tell us—do you have any stories of good or bad animal dads?

Follow Jeff Hertrick on Twitter.

Adult emperor penguin with three juveniles. Photograph by Dafna Ben Nun, Your Shot

Samaras had a long relationship with National Geographic, providing some of our most memorable videos of storms.

A week before he died, he submitted what may have been the best, most complete video of a tornado being ‘born,’ in which he describes the formation as it’s happening. Paul was the videographer, and Carl is also seen in this video from Kansas.

Sometimes Tim and his crew found more than just tornadoes. Here, Tim and Carl, along with photographer Carsten Peter, found themselves in the midst of a storm with very large hail stones. Paul Samaras is the videographer.

Paul was also the videographer for this next video, in which the crew was following a tornado as it crossed a Kansas highway April 14, 2012.

Mother’s Day is generally reserved for honoring our mothers, wives, and even grandmothers. But since we are National Geographic, why not take some time to honor animal mothers who excel at raising their young? And while we’re at it, why not point out other animal mothers who could use some coaching to do a better job?

Australia’s grey kangaroo moms are an obvious choice for “Best” mother, carrying around their little ones in pouches for nearly a year. But you may not know that they are worthy of a “Worst” nomination, too. Because, at their most vulnerable stage, the tiny newborn, no bigger than a jellybean, is expected to crawl from the uterus to the external pouch entirely on its own, with absolutely no help from mom! (see video above)

Good Mother

Polar bears have gained a lot of attention due to dwindling habitats caused by melting snow and ice in the Arctic region. In the next video, you’ll see how snow and ice are a major part of raising cubs: from helping to conceal their lair for a 5-month long hibernation, to enabling them to hunt and catch their meals.

It’s rough early going for the newborns. About half of polar bear cubs don’t make it through the first year.

BTW, if you like cute, you’ll like this video.

Bad Mother

How about a mother that raises her kids inside a corpse? That might be bad enough, but worse yet, the burying beetle also eats its offspring, depending on whether there’s enough food for the entire family.

These beetles prepare the corpse, often a rodent, for their offspring to use as food. The mom preserves the meal by secreting chemicals over the dead body to prevent it from spoiling, turning the corpse into a well-stocked fridge to feed their offspring. (video below)

Good Mother

The walrus female could be classified as a “world-class” mother. Even though a baby weighs a hundred pounds at birth, mom gives plenty of nurturing love, providing milk for up to two years. The calf gains weight at the rate of about a pound-and-a-half a day.

One of the mother’s most important tasks is teaching the young one how to pull all that weight out of the water. But when they’re in the water, motherly love takes on a human-like characteristic: lots of hugs. (at the end of video).

Like weather and the chance for a thunderstorm, the probability of avalanches can be predicted.

In the following video, go behind the scenes at the Bridger Teton National Forest Avalanche Center. Experts here prepare avalanche forecasts for backcountry thrill seekers. This video is from our partners at explore.org.

Any dog lover can appreciate the enthusiasm dogs display for praise or rewards. Rescue dogs in the backcountry  thrive on finding surviving humans. And it’s all like a game for them, with a reward at the end. In the next video, meet “Murphy” and his handler. This video also comes from our partners at explore.org.

Meet a skier who triggered a major avalanche, lived to tell about it, and it was all captured on video.

The idea is to create a cushion of air between the vehicle and everything below it. The larger the vehicle, the more efficient it can be at maneuvering over rough terrain—and even over water—if it has the right underbelly construction.

Bubba Watson quipped that some folks would probably rather drive the hovercraft golf cart than actually play golf. In the YouTube video, he insinuates that he drove a golf cart before he ever considered golfing for a living.

More than 6.7 million people have viewed Watson’s video, produced in collaboration with sunglass maker Oakley, which signed Watson to a sponsorship deal just a few months ago. As reported last week by BusinessWeek, the golf cart was produced not as a planned business departure from sunglasses to all-terrain vehicles, but instead with the idea of creating a viral video. Seems they were successful.

The nocturnal aye-aye uses its multipurpose middle finger to tap forest wood in search of its meals (see above video).

Found only on the island of Madagascar and classified as ”near threatened” on the IUCN Red List, the three populations of aye-aye that exist were thought to be very similar. But a recently completed sequencing of lemur genomes by researchers found quite the opposite to be true. The results, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences online today, show that the northern island population is significantly different from a counterpart population in the east.

Researchers found that, when compared to the differences between human populations in present-day Africa and Europe, the northern and eastern aye-aye populations have a greater genetic distance between them. (While a western island population is also distinct from the eastern group, it was not found to have nearly as much of a genetic difference as exists between the northern and eastern populations.)

Though the aye-aye populations in the north and east are separated by a distance of only about 160 miles (257 kilometers), major rivers and high and extensive plateaus made interbreeding less likely, according to Webb Miller, Penn State professor of biology and computer science and engineering.

Miller also said that the data suggests the population separation stretches back much further than 2,300 years, which is when it’s believed humans first arrived in Madagascar, burning the forest habitat and hunting the lemurs.

The scientists hope their study can help in conservation efforts, perhaps targeting efforts toward the north, where loss of habitat is of particular concern. As forests become smaller, it becomes more difficult for the lemurs to maintain their populations. And the IUCN reports that some aye-aye are killed due to the aforementioned “harbinger of evil” label.

According to a news release from Penn State University, the team of scientists in this study was led by George H. Perry, an assistant professor of anthropology and biology at Penn State University; Penn State’s Webb Miller; and Edward Louis, director of conservation genetics at Omaha’s Henry Doorly Zoo and Aquarium, and director of the Madagascar Biodiversity Partnership NGO.

By the way, if you’ve lost track since the human genome was sequenced more than a decade ago, the National Center for Biotechnology Information, U.S. National Library of Medicine, provides documentation of more than 140 species of mammals that have had significant genome sequencing reported.

Photo Caption: The aye-aye — a type of lemur — has a long, thin, and flexible middle finger to extract insect larvae from trees, filling the ecological niche of a woodpecker.

Photograph courtesy Edward Louis, Penn State

The special’s crew was granted unusual access to the Vatican, roaming through areas typically closed to the public and to the news media.

Some viewers may recognize the narrator: actor Martin Sheen, a devout Catholic.

The segment above describes how cardinals choose a pope, covers papal history, details the uniform of the Vatican’s famed Swiss Guard (all members must be from Switzerland), and explains the crucial role the Vatican played in codifying our modern calendar (known as the Gregorian calendar, after Pope Gregory XIII).

Below is the first part of the special, about Vatican City, the world’s smallest sovereign nation; and about St. Peter, for whom the Vatican’s basilica is named. You’ll also see preparations for the pope’s ordination of nine new bishops.

The following segment showcases the Pope’s photographer, whose day is nearly as busy as the church’s global leader. You’ll also go beneath the Vatican’s museums and galleries for restoration of art, and view a state visit from Argentina’s president.

The final segment of Inside the Vatican offers a tour of St. Peter’s Basilica. It opens with a rehearsal of the boys of the pontifical choir, who must be between the ages of 9 and 12. They leave the choir when they turn thirteen or when their voices change, whichever comes first. It concludes with the ceremony for ordination of new bishops.

Inside the Vatican is available on DVD. Visit shopng.com .

Inside the Vatican end credits: Produced, written and directed by John Bredar. Edited by Bonnie Cutler-Shear

The above video captures the sounds of glass breaking and car alarms set off by the meteor’s shock wave.

(News Article: Meteorite Fragments Injure a Thousand in Russia )

The below video is from a car’s dashboard camera which, judging from the number of such videos posted today, are pretty prevalent in Russia:

( NASA -JPL astrobiologist discusses space objects that threaten Earth-  Video: Predicting Meteorite Impacts )

This video is louder, capturing the violent aural drama of the moment:

Pictures: Giant Meteorite Hits Russia

From Our Vault: 1897 Meteorite Recovery

And this one shows a long streak across the sky before the jarring sound of the shock wave arrives:

And another dashboard cam. This video is different because the vehicle is stopped, allowing for a full view of the trajectory of the meteor:

A meteorite streaks across the sky over Kamensk-Uralsky. Video still from Reuters TV

The Northeast United States’ historic weekend snowfall produced major headaches—knocking out power, cancelling school and work— but it also made for some wonderful video (not to mention great sledding).

Lots of folks found ways to put Mother Nature’s fury into a lighter perspective (See blizzard photos from our readers).

Here are our favorite videos:

1. Snowboard + camera + Boston’s Beacon Hill after 24 inches of snow = this: