Mammals

About Mammals

Belonging to the largest class of the animal kingdom, these animals are homeothermic (commonly referred to as warm-blooded) quadrupeds with hair on the body. Named after their most distinctive feature, the ‘mammae’ for suckling the young, the mammals are the only animals to nourish their young by producing milk. The single-boned lower jaw of the mammals is hinged directly to the skull and separates the mammals from other vertebrates, who have several distinct bones making up the lower jaw, hung by a loose bone from the cranium. Mammals exhibit a superior evolution of brain compared to the other classes of the animal kingdom.
Majority of mammals give birth to their young, whereas a very few house their young in pouch(marsupials like the Kangaroo), and lay eggs(monotremes e.g. Platypus).

Carnivores

Literally the meat-eaters, this diverse order houses the majestic Big Cats, Wolves, Hyenas, Beers, Weasels, Badgers, Civets, Whales, Walruses, Seals etc. The carnivores function as the secondary or tertiary consumer in the food web. They may act as predators e.g. Big Cats, Wild Dogs or scavengers e,g, the Striped Hyena in a forest ecosystem.
The planet’s largest animal is a carnivore. The blue whale can reach 30 meters (100 feet) long and weigh as much as 180 metric tons (200 tons). The largest land carnivore is the polar bear, which feeds mainly on seals.
Carnivores have biological adaptations that help them hunt and eat meat from the carcass of their prey, e.g. strong jaws, sharp canines and claws, and other specific adaptations for different species.

1. Common Leopard : Enclosure Board Creative
2. Striped Hyena : Enclosure Board Creative

Primates

Order Primates of class Mammalia includes lemurs, tarsiers, monkeys, apes, and humans.
All primate species possess adaptations for climbing trees, as they all descended from tree-dwellers. This arboreal heritage of primates has resulted in hands and feet that are adapted for brachiation, or climbing and swinging through trees. These adaptations include, but are not limited to:
1) a rotating shoulder joint,
2) a big toe that is widely separated from the other toes and thumbs, which are widely separated from fingers (except humans), which allow for gripping branches,
3) stereoscopic vision, two overlapping fields of vision from the eyes, which allows for the perception of depth and gauging distance. Other characteristics of primates are brains that are larger than those of most other mammals, claws that have been modified into flattened nails, typically only one offspring per pregnancy, and a trend toward holding the body upright.

1. Grey Langur : Enclosure Board Creative
2. Rhesus Macaque : Enclosure Board Creative

Ungulates

Ungulates are a group of large mammals that are distinguished from other animals by the presence of hooves. These animals are separated into two orders: Perissodactyla and Artiodactyla. The Perissodactyls are commonly known as the odd-toed ungulates and includes horses, rhinos and tapirs. The Artiodactyla consists of the even-toed ungulates and is a much larger order with around 220 different species. Cows, sheep, goats, buffalos, deer, giraffes, pigs and camels are just a few of the many even-toed ungulates.
Almost all ungulates are herbivores and they have evolved ways to break down difficult compounds in plants that would be toxic to other mammals such as humans.
The ungulates, being herbivores serve the ecosystems they are part of as primary consumers.
Deer and moose belong to the family Cervidaeof order Artiodactylawhich also includes elk, caribou and muntjacs. They are found naturally in all continents except Australia and Antarctica. They inhabit arctic to tropical environments and do particularly well in cold and mountainous regions. The cervids are characterized by their antlers which are grown annually. Apart from caribou, antlers are only found in males.

1. Chital : Enclosure Board Creative
2. Sambar : Enclosure Board Creative

Rodents

Rodents are a group of very well-known animals such as rats, mice, squirrels, chipmunks, beaver and porcupines. It is a hugely successful order of mammals and comprises of approximately 42% of all mammalian species. The 33 families and 2,300 species are spread all around the world and are more often than not the most abundant vertebrate animals in many land-based environments.
Rodents are missing canines and some cheek teeth but have a set of constantly growing incisors. The constant growth of the front incisors require continual wearing down through the action of gnawing. The wearing down produces the characteristic pointed front teeth that make rodents easily recognizable.
Many rodents are very good diggers and a number of species spend much of their life in underground burrows. They are almost entirely herbivorous although a number of species display opportunistic feeding behaviors and will feed on insects, birds and eggs.