Behaviour and life cycle

Mammalian reproduction is sexual and by internal fertilization, which involves copulation between the male and the female, Mammals are also characterized by the offspring's dependence on its parents. In any case, there is a group of mammals called monotremes that is oviparous; that is, its members reproduce by laying egg. Mammalian behaviour consists of a mixture of inherited components and components that can be shaped by learning. Parto of this process is accomplished through play, since the young use such encounters to practise jumping, biting, hunting and other survival skills. You will discover this and much more when yout turn the page.

Life Cycle

Birth, maturity, reproduction and death: this life cycle has certain particularities among mammals. As a general rule, the larger a mammal, the longer the longer the member of its species tend to live but the fewer offspring are born to a single female per litter or reproductive season. Most mammals, including humans, are placental mammals; their vital functions are fully developed inside the body of the mother.

Beauty and Height

Finding a female with a whom to mate is the great effort of the male's life, a compettion with other males of his own species. Each animal has its particular nuances. For stags, antlers play a fundamental role in winning the heart of their choosen one. Whichever stags has the most beautiful longest and sharpest horns will be winner. Thus, he will be able to defend his territory, court the female and reproduce.

Oviparous Mammals

For a mammal to lay eggs seems improbable, but the surprising monotreme females, instead of giving birth to young, are oviparous. They are warm-blooded, have hair, and feed their newborn through mammary glands despite having no nipples. Playtypuses seem like a cocktail of nature, inasmuch as parts of their bodies resembles those of other types of animals. The other monoremes, echidnas, are covered with spines and their young grow in mother's pouch.

Efficient Nursery

Marsupial females carry their newborn offspring in their marsupium, a pouch attached to their belly. The offspring are not very well developed when they come into the world after gestation period that varies from two to five weeks. Upon emerging, the offspring must immediatly climb with their front paws to the marsupium to survive. Once inside, they will be protected. They are continually supplied with milk through their mother's four teats, helping their complete their growth before leaving the pouch for the outside world.

Miraculous Placenta

The reproductive group are formed by placental mammals, in which the unborn offspring develop in the female's uterus. During gestation, food and oxygen pass from the mother to the fetus through an organ knows as the placenta, which allows the exchange of substances through the blood. At birth, the offspring often have no hair, and deaf and blind, and feed on milk secreted by the female's mammary glands, which become active after birth.

The First Days

Mammals whose offspring develop within the uterus devote a lot of attention to their young compared with other animals, because their pups are unable to live on their on at birth. That is why they are cleaned, fed and warmed. Dogs have various developmental stages. First is the neonatal stage, which last from the opening of the pups' eyes until they begin to hear. Then comes the socialization stage, which runs from days 21 go 70, and, finally, the juvenile stage, from 70 days on.

Development and Growth

Play is much more than entertainment for young mammals, This activity, which may appear to have no specific purpose, simultaneously acquiring the basics means of survival. In their games, chimpanzees perform primary instinctive activities. These include using tools, balancing in trees, and forming communication. Young chimpanzees express themselves by means of sounds, facial gestures, and body postures that they imitate from adults. Play also allows them to develop their muscles strength and achieve good motor coordination.

Meat Eaters

The carnivore group is composed of species whose diet is based on hunting animals. The kind of teeth they have help them efficiently cut and tear the flesh of their captured prey. Lions, the most sociable of the felines, have good vision and sharp hearing; they live in packs, and when they go hunting, they do as a group.

Herbivore

Ruminants, such as cow, sheep, or deer, have stomach made of four chambers with which they carry out a unique kind of digestion. Because these animals needs to eat large quantities of grass in very short times - or else be easy targets for predators - they have developed a digestive system that allows them to swallow food, store it, and then return it to the mouth to chew calmly. When animals carry out this activity they are said to ruminate.

The Great Chain

Maintaining the ecological balance requires the existence of prey and predators. Predators species bring about a sustain reduction in the numbers of individuals of the prey species. If predators did not exist, their prey would probably proliferate until the ecosystem collapsed, because probably there would not be enough food for them all. Disappearance of predators is the cause of many imbalance created in certain habitats by humans, whose predatory ability exceeds that of any other living species. Like all other animal species, mammals do not make up food chains in themselves, instead depending at all times on the participation of plants and other animals.

One For All

Meerkats are small mammals that live in underground colonies, posting guards while the mothers take care of their young. During the day they go above ground to feed, and at night they go into the burrow to take refuge from cold. In this large family, made up of dozens of members, each one fulfils a function. When faced with danger, they employ various tactics to defend themselves. One of these is the squeal that lookouts emit in the face of even slight dangers.