ANIMAL PREGNANCY

  THE HIDDEN WORLD OF ANIMAL PREGNANCY  

" A human mother gave birth to an animal like baby! "

This kind of information had always thrilled me during my childhood when I read such information in a local daily newspaper. Sometimes the news described that the baby looked like a monkey, pig or snake. I was really puzzled.

News in a paper sometimes makes you believe that it  could have happened. But I could get the fact only when I studied embryology, unlocking mysteries of one of the nature’s most remarkable journeys—from conception to birth, when I pursued veterinary medicine.

A Human baby starts the life as a single cell, gets into different transformations during the developments before becoming a fully grown baby. It is surprising that the human foetus even gets a fish’s gill like structure for breathing before the formation of lungs. The heart develops like a football chamber before it gets the compartments and if the walls of the compartments failed to develop complete, which unfortunately results in septal defects.  Any interruption during the process could result in a baby of different shape and people attribute their versions based on their own imaginations.

Unlike human babies, The animal babies have to be born with an almost developed brain and a head which can manage  Neuromotor senses for immediate locomotory ability (Click here to read more in my other article). Therefore the transformations during their embryological process are more advanced.

Fetal development in the animal kingdom are of more surprises…. a single cell develops into a baby elephant weighing over 260 pounds, a dolphin foetus learns to swim inside its mother’s womb, a dog foetus as it exhibits full-grown dog behaviors while still in the womb. And some fetal features reveal their evolutionary path of these animals when the elephant develops ducts normally found in freshwater fish, and when dolphins show early signs of legs…

Gestation is the period of time between fertilization and birth of mammals—in other words, the time spent in the mother's uterus. You would be surprised to know some interesting facts about animal gestation.

The larger the animal, the longer the gestation period; in general, the larger the animal the longer the life but slow heart rate; smaller the size  shorter the life but rapid heart rate.

The longest gestation period for a mammal is that of the African elephant with an average of 660 days, and a maximum of 760 days.

The shortest known gestation period is 12 to 16 days with marsupials - the American or Virginian opossum and the rare water opossum, or yapok of central and northern South America. (Mammals in which the young are born prematurely and finish developing in a pouch located near the mother's abdomen)

Do dogs have belly buttons

All mammals have umbilical cord which connects the foetus to mother through placenta to get nutrition will have belly point. In  some animals like dog , They're usually only seen as a small scar in the midline of the abdominal skin.

The exception are the marsupials (animals with pouches like kangaroos) and the monotremes (platypus that lay eggs) have cords but no button/scar.

            GESTATION : HUMAN VS ANIMALS

MAMMAL SPECIES	NO. OF DAYS	MAMMAL SPECIES	NO. OF DAYS
Opossum	12	Bear, Grizzly	220
Hamster	16	Hippopotamus	240
Mouse/ Rat	21	Human baby	266
Rabbit	31	Cow	284
Skunk	31	Horse	336
Kangaroo	35	Sea Lion	360
Squirrel	44	Whale	360
Bobcat	60	Donkey	374
Dog	61	Camel	400
Cat	63	Giraffe	425
Scorpion	90 - 540	Rhino, Grey	480
Lion	108	Rhino, Black	540
Pig	114	Elephant, Indian	624
Goat / Sheep	145 / 150	Elephant, African	660