Mammal Facts

There are about 4,000 kinds of mammals, 21,000 kinds of fish
and 800,000 kinds of insects!

Mammals have these characteristics which make them the same!!

Warm Blooded
Swim in water or walk on land
Mammals are the only animals with true hair
Mammal Babies: All drink Milk!
Most mammal babies live inside their mothers before they are born, just like
humans.
People have "baby teeth" or "milk teeth". So do all of the other mammals! The
only exceptions are mammals like anteaters -- they don't have any teeth at all.
Mammals are vertebrates, which means that they all have backbones (spines).
Believe it or not, most animals don't have backbones -- mammals are one of the
few groups that do.
All mammals, except some sea cows and sloths have 7 bones in their necks. This
includes giraffes who have VERY long spines! Their necks can be 6 1/2 feet long,
but they're still made up of just 7 bones.

Types of Mammals
Monotremes: Primitive egg-layers.
Echidnas (spiny ant-eaters)
Duck-billed platypus.

Marsupials:    Young are born in an embryo state
Most female have pouches
Koala
Kangaroo
Opossum

Placental:    Young are born at a relatively advanced stage
Young are nourished through a placenta.
Cats
Dogs
Deer
People

Different Mammalian Diets:
Herbivores (plant eaters):    Beavers, cows, horses, pandas, sloths

Carnivores (meat eaters-    Whales and dolphins, dogs, tigers, lions

Omnivores (eat plants and meat): People, some bears,

Insectivores (eat insects): Aardvarks, anteaters, pangolins

Mammal Extremes
Fastest:    Cheetah (60-70 mph = 97-110 kph)

Slowest:    Sloth (less than 1 mph, or 2 kph)

Biggest in Ocean:   Blue whale

Biggest on Land:   African Elephant

Tallest:   Giraffe

Smallest:    Pygmy Shrew (weighing 1.2-2.7 gm)
Bumblebee Bat (weighing about 2 gm)
Loudest:       Blue Whale.

Smallest newborns:   Marsupials (pouched mammals, like the kangaroo)

Smelliest:    Striped Skunk

Venomous:     Duckbilled Platypus (males only)
Shrew (some species)
Solenodon (a small insectivore)

Fatest:      Blue whale has the thickest layer of blubber
Ringed seal pups have the greatest
percentage of fat (about 50 %).