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Video: All About Mammals

What special features do mammals have? Do all mammals have hair? And do any mammals lay eggs? Why do mammals hibernate - unlike other animals? In this video we collected the peculiarities of mammals and explain them to you.

Video: All About Mammals - 5 Interesting Facts

(Video opens on YouTube)


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Here we offer a transcript of the video:

1. All Mammals Have Hair (?)

The musk ox has the longest coat of all mammals. It can grow up to 24 inch (60 cm) long and sometimes even reaches down to the hooves. Of all mammals, chinchillas have the softest coat. 60 hairs grow from each root. Humans grow only one hair per root.

Marine mammals such as whales and sea cows only grow a few hairs on their heads and on their muzzles. What about elephants, walruses, aardvarks, pigs, naked mole rats, rhinos and hippos ? They are also among the few mammals that almost appear to be naked, because they only have whiskers or very fine and thin hair. Baby dolphins lose the whiskers on their muzzles soon after their birth. And what about the skin? Tigers have a striped skin under their striped coat! Polar bears have a black skin.

2. All Mammals Give Birth to Living Babies (?)

At birth, honey possums are the world’s smallest animal babies. The only weigh 0.0001 oz (5 mg). Although kangaroos are much bigger, their babies only weigh a few milligrams, too. Compared to their body size and weight, panda bears have the smallest babies. Of course, the blue whale has the largest babies of all mammals. But did you know that they weigh more than 2.5 tons at birth? This is equal to the weight of an adult hippo. Duckbills and spiny anteaters are different: They lay eggs from which their babies hatch.

3. All Mammals Have a Constant Body Temperature (?)

Mammals are warmblooded animals. This means that they always have the same body temperature, no matter how cold or hot their environment is. Therefore, they need a lot of energy ... which means food! Some mammals do not find any food during the winter, so they spend their time hibernating. They are the only mammals that can lower their body temperature.


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4. Mammals are Vertebrates

All mammals have a spine. This is why they are called vertebrates. Even though the giraffe has got a rather long neck: Like all other mammals, it has seven cervical vertebrae – they are just “a bit” longer. Only sloths and manatees form exceptions: Sloths have five to seven cervical vertebrae and manatees only six.

5. Only One Mammal Species Can Fly

Bats are the only mammals that are able to fly. The bat order does not only include the microbats, but also flying foxes. Other than microbats, they prefer fruit, nectar and pollen. Only few bat species can walk. Their legs are too weak for this as they are using their wings to fly most of the time.

The animalfunfacts Roundup!

Mammals have a coat, give birth to living babies, they are warm-blooded, vertebrates – and one mammal species can even fly: the bat.


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