Altricial

Altricial, meaning "requiring care", refers to a kind of creature that can't take care of itself for a long time after hatching or being born. The word comes from the Latin root alere meaning "to nurse, to rear, or to nourish", because altricial animals are born helpless and need adult animals to take care of them for a long time before they are old enough to be independent.

Birds or mammals which need much less care after birth are called precocial, meaning they are independent soon after they hatch or are born.

References

 Other websites 
 The altricial-precocial spectrum in birds

Category:Developmental biology
Category:Biological reproduction