Final answer:
Female muskrats improve the survival odds of their young by building shelters, teaching survival skills, and defending them from predators. These parental care strategies, including creating a safe environment and investing time in offspring education, enhance fitness and are favored by natural selection.
Step-by-step explanation:
Female muskrats, like many other mammals and birds, engage in a variety of behaviors to improve the odds of their own young surviving. One common strategy is constructing a nest or other form of shelter to protect the young from environmental hazards and predators. Additionally, female muskrats may teach their young vital survival skills and participate in feeding and protecting them. For example, teaching the young important skills such as finding food and evading predators is crucial for their survival. This investment in offspring is a strong survival strategy as seen in species where parents engage in caring for the young.
Another example across species is seen in killdeer birds. A mother killdeer will feign injury, such as a broken wing, to divert predators away from her chicks, thereby increasing her fitness by ensuring her offspring's survival at the risk of her own safety. This behavior, as well as other parental care strategies, including the constant presence of one male, internal fertilization, and the number of offspring produced, all contribute to the improved survival rates of the offspring. Overall, these strategies are favored by natural selection, as those individuals whose offspring survive to adulthood are more likely to pass on their genes.