There are parents much more disastrous than you (in the animal kingdom)

Five popular movies to watch this Father's Day 1:26

(CNN) --

 If you're a parent, you've probably experienced endless anxieties about whether you're doing enough for your children as they grow up.

What if your children inherit your negative habits?

What if you let your kids watch too much TV or feed them the wrong foods?

Worrying that you are going to be wrong is normal and you will make mistakes, but you can put things in perspective knowing that some parents are much worse than you, according to comedy writer Glenn Boozan's book "There Are Moms Way Worse Than You: Irrefutable Proof That You Are Indeed a Fantastic Parent."

Priscilla Witte illustrated the book, which also features some "bad" animal parents.

Pictured is the cover of Glenn Boozan's book, "There Are Moms Way Worse Than You: Irrefutable Proof That You Are Indeed a Fantastic Parent."

Questionable animal parents include grizzly bears that eat their young when food is scarce, and lions that primarily stand guard and appear tough as lionesses venture out to hunt and kill.

"So when you feel exhausted or have too much on your plate, as long as you don't eat your baby? Yes, you're doing great," Boozan wrote in his book.

"When the panic mounts and the pressure starts to mount, remember you're trying...and that's all that counts."

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Here are three other mean animal dads that might make you feel better about your parenting efforts this Father's Day.

needle fish

A male pipefish (Stigmatopora argus) carries eggs in the pouch under its tail until they hatch off the coast of Edithburgh on the Yorke Peninsula in South Australia.

"It's not just moms, some dads suck too! Not everyone is warm and comfy," Boozan wrote.

"A daddy pipefish will eat his kids if he thinks they're ugly."

Male pipefish can become pregnant and give birth, but their interest in being loving fathers can only last during pregnancy.

A key factor in this decision-making may be how the male pipefish feels about the mother of his offspring, researchers at Texas A&M University discovered in 2010.

• There are mothers much less selfless than you in the animal kingdom

A male pipefish that liked a female partner with whom he had mated was more likely to care for his offspring, the researchers found.

Male pipefish that were less interested in mother pipefish were less affectionate towards their young, investing fewer resources in them.

Parent pipefish are also known to absorb nutrients from some of their embryos, effectively cannibalizing them, according to a 2009 paper in the journal

Horses

Stallions fight in a swamp in the Camargue region of Provence in France.

"Horses look like super dads but, hey, they're not the best," Boozan wrote.

"They threaten the children of other horses and kick them to death."

If a stallion is capable of siring many offspring, he has a genetic advantage over other stallions, according to Good Horse, an equestrian forum run by horse trainer and behavior consultant Diamanto Mamuneas.

But since a stallion can't give birth, you can never be completely sure that all the foals in your vicinity are yours, which can be stressful as stallions spend a lot of time and resources caring for and protecting their foals when they could. be mating or eating.

And as the foals mature, they become competition for the stallions in the mating pool.

Caring for rivals' offspring is futile, so stallions have developed strategies to avoid having to breed unrelated foals, including butchering young foals, according to research published in the journal

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poison frogs

A male shiny-thighed poison frog (Allobates femoralis) carries its young on its back in Peru's Tambopata National Reserve.

"The daddy poison dart frog is less of a 'hit' and more of a 'miss,'" Boozan wrote.

"To keep his eggs from drying out, he sometimes uses his urine."

Poison dart frog daddies guard their young for 10 to 18 days, occasionally urinating on them to protect them from predators and keep them moist.

Eggs require "significant additional moisture to prevent" desiccation, according to Animal Diversity Web, an online zoology resource produced by the University of Michigan Museum of Zoology.

Relieve parental anxiety

Many parenting books are geared toward selling things, Boozan said, to make readers feel like better parents.

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“I wanted to sell them things so that they feel that they are good (parents), and that they don't need to buy any other junk,” he added.

"Buying a specific diaper blanket or a different type of bottle won't make you a better or worse parent," Boozan said.

"I think you're going to be a great father no matter what if you do your best. My goal was to alleviate those fears, if only for a moment with a little laughter."

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