Mammals

What is a mammal?

Mammals, such as dogs, are vertebrates. The picture below shows the skeleton of a dog. Can you see the backbone?

Mammals have the following things in common:

• They feed their young with milk: Female mammals produce milk in their bodies to feed their young. They feed their young milk until they are old enough to eat other foods.
• They are warm blooded: This means that the body temperature of a mammal remains the same even when the temperature in their environment changes. 
• They breathe air: All mammals breathe air using their lungs. Even mammals that live in water have to come up to the surface to breathe air.
• They have hair: Mammals have hair or fur growing on their bodies. Some mammals are completely covered in hair or fur while others have only a few hairs.
• They give birth to live young: Almost all mammals give birth to live young. Only two mammals are known to lay eggs.

Examples of mammals

Many of the animals you are familiar with are mammals, including dogs, cats, sheep, cows, monkeys and whales. People are mammals too. Some pictures of mammals are seen below.

_{All cats are mammals including tigers, lions and housecats.}

_{Horses, donkeys and zebras are mammals.}

_{Whales and dolphins are mammals that live in the sea.}

_{The mongoose is a mammal.}

_{The agouti is a mammal}