Excerpted from The Creature’s Guide to Caring: How Animal Parents Teach Us That Humans Were Born to Care by Elizabeth Preston. Published by Viking. Copyright © 2026. All rights reserved. One of the world’s most cooperative mammals is also one of its most warlike. I’m not talking about us. The banded mongoose lives in sub-Saharan Africa. It has a long, bulky body and a pointed face, kind of like a ferret on steroids. There are many species of mongoose, but this one has dark stripes across its lower back and haunches. The other distinctive trait of banded mongooses (not “mon-geese,” sadly) is their groups. In western Uganda, where University of Exeter evolutionary biologist Michael Cant studies them, the banded mongooses live in extended families of 10 to 20 adults, plus their children. These families are highly cooperative when it comes to raising the pups.…