Category: Mammals
Despite its larger than life name, the royal antelope (Neotragus pygmaeus) is the smallest of all antelopes. Growing up to only 10″ tall and weighing about 6 pounds, they are about as big as a rabbit. Living in the dense, moist undergrowth of forests in West Africa, they are nocturnal, highly alert, and extremely shy – which can make observations of its behavior difficult. Their main strategy for avoiding predators is blending in, hiding, and failing that, zipping away through the underbrush!
A 200 Million Year-old Iconoclast
If a defining trait of mammals is that they give live birth to their young, how do you explain monotremes? Monotremes are mammals that lay eggs like a reptile, rather than giving birth to live young. Living examples of these unusual animals can only be found in Australia and New Guinea today, though they used to be more widespread. A monotreme egg has less yolk for supplying nutrients than a reptile egg, and when a young echidna or platypus hatches, it is very tiny and less developed than its reptile counterpart. But monotreme babies are able to grow and thrive because their mothers stay with them, lactating to supply vital nutrients for their growth - just like other mammals!
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