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Saturday 12 March 2016

Mammal

The Romans were noted for capturing large African and Indian mammals. Many of them were used in gladiator sports; others were kept for show. During the reign of the Roman emperor Augustus in the 1st century BC, more than 600 lions and tigers and a variety of other large mammals were kept in Rome.

Pandas were thought of as rare and noble creatures in Ancient China. The grandson of the 7th century Emperor Taizong of Tang is said to have given Japan two pandas and a sheet of panda skin as a sign of goodwill.

The word "mammal" is fairly modern, from the scientific name Mammalia coined by Carl Linnaeus in 1758, derived from the Latin mamma ("teat, pap").

In 1996 Britain passed the Wild Mammals Act to give wild animals like hedgehogs, foxes and squirrels the same legal protection from cruelty as domestic animals.

All female mammals nurse their young with milk, which is secreted from special glands, the mammary glands.

Mammals are the only animals with flaps around the ears.

One of the defining characteristics of all mammal species is that they have hair on their bodies.

The Virginia Opossum is the only marsupial (pouched mammal) in North America. Their babies stay in the pouch for the first 60 days.

North American Opossum with winter coat. By Cody Pope - Wikipedia Commons

Scientists have found that all mammals weighing more than 2.2 pounds (a kilogram) empty their full bladders in about 20 seconds.

The three-toed sloth has the lowest daily energy expenditure of any mammal outside of hibernation.

The most common wild mammals in Britain are rats, mice, voles and humans, in that order

Bats account for one-quarter of the mammal population in the world.

About 20% of all classified mammal species can fly, as there’s over 1,200 species of bats.

The world's smallest mammal is the bumblebee bat of Thailand (see below), weighing less than a penny.


The European bison or wisent (Bison bonasus) is the heaviest of the surviving land animals in Europe, with males growing to around 1,000 kg (2,200 lb).

The bowhead whale can live for longer than two centuries, making it the oldest mammal.

Anteaters are the only mammals that do not have teeth.

Only 4% of mammals on Earth are wild. 36% are humans, and 60% are livestock.

Most mammals have a lifespan of one billion heartbeats – For a rabbit, it takes about three years to reach a billion, while slow-pulsed elephants can live for more than 80 years. Only humans can push hearts past two billion beats thanks to water purification and modern medicine.

Humans, short-fined pilot whales and killer whales are the only female mammals to live past their child-bearing years.

Source Compton's Encyclopedia 

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