A REALLY bad parent? Try the animal world

Lots of folks might think they have (or are) bad parents. They might be right.
But anything they do pales compared to the animal world. “Underdogs” — a quirky delight Sundays on the National Geographic Channel (with one hour on ABC and everything on Disney+ and Hulu) — offers:
— A goose that hatches its four eggs on an 800-foot cliff (shown here), then has no plan for how its offspring will get down.
— A koala whose idea of good baby food is … well, poop.
— Lemurs, who overdo the notion of “it takes a village.” A baby is passed through a dizzying succession of aunts, uncles and, maybe, strangers.
But the ultimate in absentee parenting may be the cowbird. It simply waits until another mom had flown off for food; then it drops her egg into the nest.
Somehow, the returning mom never seems to notice that one egg is bigger than the others … or that one hatchling looks a lot different from the others.
Such stories ripple through the three-week, five-hour series at 9 p.m. Sundays, starting June 15. The first hour is also on ABC and each one moves to Disney+ and Hulu the next day.
“We love to tell stories of lesser-known animals,” said Dan Rees, one of the show’s producers.
So the idea came to focus a show on just the ones who seem to have no natural advantages. They improvise, sometimes in bizarre ways.
Then the show linked with Ryan Reynolds, who became one of the producers and the narrator. “It’s such a great fit for his comic sense of self deprecation,” Rees said. “He’s sort of the champion of the underdogs.”
And these creatures do beat the odds. Some fight back in surprising ways; a pistol shrimp shoots out fiercely hot bubbles. Others, wisely. hide.
The glass frog can turn virtually invisible, Rees said. “They withdraw all the blood back into their liver.”
And there’s one creature that has found the consummate hiding place. Rees cited that, when asked about his favorite moments.
“It’s kind of childish,” he said (without being contradicted), “but one of my favorites is the story of the pearlfish. When it’s frightened, it hides up the anus of the sea cucumber.”
Really. It’s the one place that few predators would think to search.
Rees heard about that from one of his filming units. “I said, ‘Look, it sounds amazing, but surely you’ll never be able to film that.'”
They did. It turns out that the pearlfish backs in, allowing for a hasty exit.
There are other skills of all types. We see clever macaques who steal hats or sunglasses, then trade them back for treats; one wise one grabs phones.
Or jackals who plot to steal a lion’s meal. One bites the tail, then departs quickly; while the lion is in pursuit, others swipe the food.
Or a caterpillar who has one real head and several fake ones. Usually, a predator goes for a fake.
All of these are arranged into semi-arbitrary categories. For instance:
— Many of the best hiders are in “Superzeroes” (9 p.m., June 15) … but the rectal hider is reserved (appropriately) for “Total Grossout” (9 p.m., June 29).
— Most of the parental mishaps are in “Terrible Parents” (9:54 p.m., June 15) … but the sneaky cowbird is alongside other schemers (including the phone-grabbing macaques) in “Unusual Suspects” (9:53 p.m., June 22).
— Then there’s “Sexy Beasts” (9 p.m., June 22), which has — no surprise here — guys behaving oddly.
One bird spends a lifetime building a home that might attract a mate. He forages for trinkets … and steals from other guys’ homes.
Turkey males battle each other fiercely for mating privileges — so fiercely that a few wise ones disguise as females until the battles are done.
And some hyenas provided Rees with one of his favorite segments.
At a huge, extinct volcano in Tanzania, hyenas have a matriarchal society. “We were going to tell the story from the female perspective,” he said. Then they realized the ultimate underdogs were the males, seeking a lover,
“They’ll jut follow her and follow her for weeks. Finally, she’ll say, ‘OK, you’re devoted to me enough for you to be my mate.'”
You can call it persistence or resilience or, well, stalking. But sometimes, it works.