190 Fun Facts About Baby Animals

What is a young domestic cat commonly called?

A young domestic cat is known as a kitten. They are born blind and fully dependent on their mothers for the first several weeks.

What is the term for a baby kangaroo?

A newborn joey is about the size of a lima bean and climbs to the pouch using only its partly developed forelimbs; it usually stays there about nine months.

What is the name for a baby echidna, the spiny egg-laying mammal of Australia?

A baby echidna is a puggle; it hatches from a soft-shelled egg after about ten days and stays with its mother until its spines begin to grow.

What is the chick of the Atlantic 'sea parrot', a burrow-nesting auk, called?

A young puffin is a puffling; Atlantic puffin chicks leave their burrow alone at night about six weeks after hatching.

What is a young dog called?

A young dog is universally known as a puppy. Puppies are born blind and deaf and are completely dependent on their mother for their first weeks of life.

What is a baby cow called?

A baby cow is called a calf, and they are typically born after a gestation period of about nine months. They can stand and walk shortly after birth.

What general term covers any horse under a year old, male or female?

Foal covers both sexes; a colt is a male foal, a filly a female, and a yearling is one to two years old.

What is a young sheep known as?

A baby sheep is called a lamb, and they are typically born in the spring. Lambs are known for their soft, woolly coats.

Which of these is the name for a baby goat?

A baby goat is a kid, from Old Norse kið; a goat giving birth is said to be kidding, and twins are common.

What is the young of a small deer species, such as a white-tailed deer, called?

A young deer is a fawn; fawns are born nearly scentless and lie still in cover while the mother feeds, and moose and elk young are called calves instead.

What is the common name for a baby bear?

A baby bear is called a cub, and they are usually born blind and helpless, relying entirely on their mother for the first few months.

What is a young fox often referred to as?

Cub and pup are also used for young foxes. A female is a vixen, a male a dog or reynard, and a group is a skulk or leash.

What is a baby rabbit called?

A leveret is a young hare, not a rabbit. Rabbit kits are also called kittens or bunnies, and a group of them is a litter or a wrack.

What is the young of the United States' national bird called?

A young eagle is an eaglet; bald eaglets stay in the nest for about 10 to 12 weeks before their first flight.

What is a young swan called?

Cygnet comes from the Latin for swan, cygnus; the grey down is why Andersen's ugly duckling was really a swan.

What is a young mallard called?

Duckling; the grown-ups are a drake and a hen, and gosling and cygnet are the young of geese and swans.

What is a baby goose called?

A baby goose is known as a gosling, typically covered in soft, downy feathers.

What is a baby fish called?

Fry are newly hatched fish that have used up their yolk sac and begun feeding; they grow into fingerlings once roughly finger-sized.

Which term refers to a baby whale?

A baby whale is called a calf, a term also used for young cows, elephants, and other large mammals. Whale calves are born underwater.

What is a baby elephant known as?

A baby elephant is called a calf. Elephant calves are born after a gestation period of nearly two years, making it one of the longest in the animal kingdom.

Which animal is a cheetah cub's long silvery back mantle thought to mimic?

Cheetah cubs carry a long silvery mantle of fur on the neck and back for their first months, which some biologists think mimics the aggressive honey badger.

What is a young seal called?

A baby seal is called a pup, and they are born on land or ice, spending their first weeks nursing and growing rapidly.

Which term is used for a baby lion?

A baby lion is commonly called a cub, although scientifically, all young cats, including lions, can be referred to as kittens.

What is a baby tiger called?

A baby tiger is called a cub. Tiger cubs are born blind and helpless, relying entirely on their mother for survival.

What is the gilled, tailed larval stage of a frog or toad called?

Tadpoles breathe through gills and swim with a tail before they grow into froglets.

What is a newly hatched web-spinning arachnid called?

Spiderlings hatch from egg sacs already looking like miniature adults.

What is a baby butterfly or moth called?

The larval stage of a butterfly or moth is known as a caterpillar, characterized by its worm-like body and voracious appetite for leaves.

What is a baby chimpanzee called?

Like human babies, chimp infants are born helpless and need extensive parental care.

What is a baby dolphin called?

Dolphin calves arrive tail-first and head straight for the surface to take their first breath.

What is a young giraffe called?

Calf, like the young of cattle, elephants and whales; giraffes normally have one, though twins occasionally occur.

Which marsupial mother can produce two different milks at once for joeys of different ages?

A kangaroo can suckle a newborn on one teat and an older joey on another, each teat producing milk of a different composition.

What do falconers call a young hawk that has left the nest but cannot yet fly?

A brancher is a young raptor that has left the nest and hops between branches before its first flight; a passager is a first-year bird trapped on migration, a haggard an adult.

What is a baby domestic pigeon called?

Squabs hatch naked and helpless and are fed by their parents until they are ready to fledge.

Goslings, like adult geese, eat a diet made up mostly of what?

Grass and vegetation, which is why manicured city lawns have helped Canada goose numbers boom.

What is a baby llama or alpaca called?

The word is Spanish for 'baby'. Crias are up and trying to suckle within an hour of birth, and the herd's females gather round to guard the delivery.

What is a newborn quill-bearing rodent called?

A porcupette's quills are soft hair at birth and harden into sharp adult quills within a few days.

What is a baby ferret called?

A baby ferret is called a kit. Ferret kits are born blind and deaf and are fully dependent on their mother.

What is a young eel called?

Elvers follow the glass-eel stage; in Spain they are 'angulas', a delicacy that can fetch 1,000 euros a kilo.

Which baby mammal is born with soft white spines hidden under swollen skin?

A baby hedgehog is called a hoglet. They are born blind and with soft, white spines that harden over time.

What is a baby otter's primary form of transportation when very young?

A sea otter mother cradles her pup on her chest as she floats, keeping it out of the cold water and grooming its fur; a pup's cry is often compared to a gull's.

What is a baby snake called?

A snake born live rather than from an egg is a neonate, and 'snakelet' is also used for either.

What is a baby oyster or mussel called?

Spat are oysters under 25 mm long that have settled and attached to a surface; growers spread them across existing beds to mature.

Which term describes a baby turkey?

A baby turkey is called a poult. These young birds are typically covered in downy feathers and can walk shortly after hatching.

What is a baby koala called?

Similar to kangaroos, baby koalas are also called joeys. They spend their early development inside their mother's pouch.

What is a baby bat called?

A newborn can weigh up to 40 percent of its mother, and most species have just one per litter.

What is a young hare called?

A young hare is a leveret; hares do not burrow, and leverets are left in a shallow depression in the grass called a form.

What is the chick of the bird famous for its fanned, eyespotted tail train called?

A young peafowl is a peachick; only the male with the eyespotted train is properly a peacock, the female a peahen.

A young crane is called a chick or by what other name shared with horses?

Young cranes are called colts, borrowing the word for a young male horse; a group of cranes is a sedge or siege.

What is a young salmon in its striped freshwater stage called?

A young salmon in fresh water is a parr, named for the dark 'parr marks' on its flanks; female salmon are hens and males cocks.

What is a young cod called?

A young cod is a codling, a name fishmongers also use for small cod; a group of cod is a school.

What is a baby guinea fowl called?

A young guinea fowl is a keet; keets hatch after about 26 to 28 days of incubation and chill easily, so they are kept warm and dry.

What is a baby crab called in its larval stage?

A crab larva is a zoea, a spiny free-swimming stage that later moults into a megalopa before settling as a tiny crab.

What is the first free-swimming larval stage of a barnacle called?

A barnacle hatches as a nauplius, a one-eyed swimming larva that moults into a cyprid before cementing itself head-first to a rock or hull.

In the pet and reptile-food trade, what is a hairless newborn mouse called?

A hairless newborn mouse is a pinkie, named for its bare skin; once fur appears it is a fuzzy, then a hopper, then a weanling.

What is a joey that has left the pouch for good but still suckles called?

A joey that has permanently left the pouch but returns to suckle is a young-at-foot; it may share its mother with a newborn still in the pouch.

What is a male fallow deer in its second year called?

A pricket is a male fallow deer in its second year, when it carries short unbranched antlers; a brocket is the red deer equivalent and a hart a mature red stag.

What is a young herring called?

Sild, the Norwegian word for herring, is used in English for small young herring; many tinned 'sardines' from Norway are sild.

What is a young octopus or squid called?

Young octopuses and squid that drift as plankton are paralarvae; they look like miniature adults rather than true larvae, hence the name.

What is the tiny, lobed young jellyfish released by budding from a polyp called?

An ephyra is the small eight-lobed young medusa that a jellyfish polyp buds off by strobilation; it grows into the adult bell.

What is a young newt called during its land-dwelling stage?

A juvenile newt living on land is an eft; the eastern newt's 'red eft' is bright orange, warning predators of its toxic skin.

What is a young opossum called?

Females are jills and males are jacks; a group is a passel.

What is a young wombat called?

A group of wombats has been dubbed a 'wisdom'.

What do pigeon fanciers call a young bird not yet weaned off crop milk?

Pigeon fanciers call a young pigeon a squeaker, for the sound it makes when begging; both parents feed it crop milk from the lining of the crop.

A just-weaned young pig is called what?

A shoat is a young pig that has just been weaned; a farrow is a litter of piglets, and a barrow a castrated male.

What is a female pig that has not yet bred called?

A gilt is a female pig that has not yet had a litter; once bred she is a sow, and a castrated male is a barrow.

What is a young female chicken called?

A pullet is a female chicken under a year old; a young male is a cockerel and a castrated male a capon.

A young female cow that has not yet bred is called what?

A heifer is a young female that has not had a calf; a castrated male is a steer or bullock, and a freemartin an infertile female twin.

A group of kittens is known by which term?

A litter of kittens is a kindle, from the old verb 'to kindle' meaning to give birth; a clowder or glaring is a group of adult cats.

What is a young horse of either sex called between one and two years old?

A yearling is a horse between one and two years old; a weanling is a foal that has just been weaned, usually at four to six months.

A young female goat is called what?

A doeling is a young female goat; a young male is a buckling, a castrated male a wether, and an adult female a nanny or doe.

What is a baby zebra called?

Like horses, young males are colts and females fillies.

What is a young armadillo called?

Females are sows and males are boars.

What is a baby beaver called?

A group of beavers is a colony or family.

What is a baby skunk called?

A group of skunks is a surfeit.

What is a young gerbil, hamster or guinea pig called?

A group of gerbils or hamsters is a horde.

What is a young mole called?

A group of moles is a labor.

What is a young prairie dog called?

Prairie dogs live in 'towns'.

What is a young stingray or shark called?

A group of stingrays is a fever; sharks form a shiver.

What is a young weasel called?

A group of weasels is a gang or sneak.

What is a young raccoon called?

A group of raccoons is a gaze or nursery.

What is a young badger called?

Badgers live in a cete or colony.

What is a young chicken raised specifically for its meat called?

A broiler is a young chicken bred for meat and usually slaughtered at six to seven weeks; a layer is kept for eggs and a bantam is a miniature breed.

What is a tailless young amphibian called just after it stops being a tadpole?

A froglet is a frog that has just absorbed its tail and left the water; toads produce toadlets at the same stage.

A nine-banded armadillo litter normally consists of how many genetically identical pups?

The nine-banded armadillo almost always bears identical quadruplets: one fertilised egg splits into four embryos that share a single placenta.

What is the temporary hard bump a turtle hatchling uses to slit its eggshell called?

A turtle hatchling slits its shell with a caruncle, a hard bump on the snout that drops off within days; scutes and the plastron are parts of the shell.

What is a young mosquito called?

Mosquito larvae are called wrigglers and pupae tumblers.

What is a young fly called?

A fly larva is a maggot, a legless larva that feeds on decaying matter before pupating into the adult fly.

What is a young grasshopper, locust or cockroach called?

Insects with incomplete metamorphosis, like grasshoppers and cockroaches, hatch as nymphs that look like small wingless adults.

What is a young beetle called?

Mealworms are the larvae of darkling beetles.

What is a young pelican called?

Young pelicans are chicks or nestlings; they hatch naked and feed by reaching into the parent's pouch for regurgitated fish.

Besides pigeons, which tall wading bird feeds its chick on crop milk?

Flamingos, like pigeons and emperor penguins, feed chicks crop milk secreted in the upper digestive tract; it is reddish from the parents' pigments.

Where are hippopotamus calves usually born?

Hippo calves are usually born underwater and must paddle to the surface for their first breath; they can also suckle underwater.

What is a baby rhinoceros called?

A group of rhinos is a crash.

What is a baby hippopotamus called?

A group of hippos is a bloat.

What is a baby camel called?

A group of camels is a caravan or train.

What is a baby wolf correctly called?

Young wolves are pups or whelps; a litter of four to six is born in a den in spring, and the whole pack helps feed them.

What is a baby leopard or jaguar called?

Groups of leopards are called a leap.

What is a baby hyena called?

A group of hyenas is a cackle or clan.

What is a baby squirrel called?

Young squirrels are kits, kittens or pups; they are born hairless with closed eyes in a leafy nest called a drey, and a group is a scurry.

What is a baby wallaby called?

Females are jills and males jacks; a group is a mob.

What is a baby lemur called?

A group of lemurs is a conspiracy.

What is the antibody-rich first milk a mother mammal produces for her newborn called?

Colostrum is the thick first milk produced in the days after birth; it is rich in antibodies that protect a newborn foal, calf or lamb from infection.

What is a baby emu called?

Young emus are chicks or hatchlings; the male alone incubates the eggs for about eight weeks and then guards the striped chicks for months.

What is a baby ant, bee, wasp or hornet called?

Larvae become pupae before emerging as adults.

What colour is a flamingo chick's down when it hatches?

Flamingo chicks hatch with grey-white down and a straight bill; the pink colour comes later from carotenoid pigments in their food.

What is a young starfish called in its larval stages?

A starfish hatches as a bipinnaria larva and then becomes a brachiolaria, which settles and metamorphoses into a tiny five-armed juvenile.

What is a young sand dollar's free-swimming larva called?

A sand dollar, like other sea urchins, hatches as a pluteus, a larva with long skeletal arms, which later settles and metamorphoses.

A newborn kangaroo joey is about the size of what?

A newborn red kangaroo joey is about the size of a lima bean, roughly 2 cm long and under a gram, and is born blind, hairless and pink.

About how long is a red kangaroo's pregnancy before the tiny joey is born?

A red kangaroo's gestation lasts only about 33 days; the joey is born barely developed and completes its growth in the pouch.

What ability lets a female kangaroo pause an embryo's development until the pouch is free?

Embryonic diapause lets a kangaroo hold a blastocyst in suspended development until the pouch is free, so she is almost always pregnant.

The koala's genus name Phascolarctos comes from Greek words meaning what?

Phascolarctos means 'pouch bear', from Greek phaskolos (pouch) and arktos (bear), though the koala is a marsupial, not a bear.

How do newly hatched platypuses feed, since the mother has no teats?

They hatch blind and hairless.

Which seahorse parent carries the eggs in a brood pouch until birth?

The female deposits up to 1,500 eggs in his pouch.

A male seahorse carries the eggs for roughly how long before releasing the young?

A male seahorse carries the eggs for 9 to 45 days depending on species and water temperature, then releases fully formed but tiny young.

Which emperor penguin parent incubates the single egg through the Antarctic winter, eating nothing for two months?

The male balances the egg on his feet for just over 60 days and loses around 12 kg, while the female feeds at sea.

About how much weight does a male emperor penguin lose while incubating its egg?

A male emperor penguin loses around 12 kg, roughly a third of his body weight, during more than two months of incubation without food.

Roughly how much does a newborn elephant calf weigh?

A newborn elephant calf weighs around 120 kg (African calves 90 to 120 kg) and stands about 85 cm at the shoulder.

Elephant gestation typically lasts how long?

Elephant gestation lasts 18 to 24 months, about 22 on average, the longest of any land mammal; the female will not calve again for about four years.

Giant pandas give birth to twins in roughly what share of pregnancies?

About half of giant panda pregnancies produce twins, though the mother normally rears only one, so zoo keepers swap twins between her and an incubator.

A newborn giant panda cub is pink, blind, toothless and weighs roughly how much?

A newborn giant panda weighs just 90 to 130 g and is pink, blind and toothless; the father plays no part in raising it.

How long is a blue whale calf at birth?

A blue whale calf is 6 to 7 metres long at birth and weighs 2 to 3 tonnes, after a gestation of 10 to 12 months.

A harp seal pup keeps its white coat for how long before its first moult?

A harp seal pup wears its white coat for about 2 to 3 weeks, then moults into a silver-grey coat with black spots and is known as a 'beater'.

How many cubs does a mother polar bear typically have per litter?

Newborns weigh around 600 g and have woolly hair and pink skin.

Polar bear cubs stay with their mother for up to how long?

Polar bear cubs stay with their mother for up to two and a half years, learning to hunt seals before she breeds again.

The cry of a sea otter pup is often compared to that of which bird?

A sea otter pup's high-pitched cry is often compared to a gull's; sea otters usually give birth in the water to a single pup.

What do shepherds call a lamb reared by hand, often after losing its mother?

A cosset is a lamb reared by hand, often an orphan; the word gave English the verb 'to cosset', meaning to pamper.

Konrad Lorenz studied imprinting mainly with which birds?

Lorenz worked mainly with greylag geese, whose goslings followed him as if he were their mother; Douglas Spalding and Oskar Heinroth had noted the effect earlier.

Newborn kittens normally open their eyes after how many days?

Kittens open their eyes at about seven to ten days old, though they stay blue-eyed for weeks, and start exploring beyond the nest at around two weeks.

Cat gestation averages how many days?

Cat gestation averages about 66 days (the usual range is 64 to 67), and litters typically hold two to five kittens.

Puppies are born after an average gestation of how many days?

Puppies arrive after about 63 days of gestation; each emerges in an amniotic sac that the mother bites open and licks away.

Horses are 'precocial'; what does that mean for a newborn foal?

Precocial means born relatively mature and mobile: a foal stands within an hour; most predators, by contrast, are altricial, born blind and helpless.

Foals are born after a gestation of approximately how long?

A mare carries her foal for about 11 months (around 340 days); most foals are born in spring after a winter pregnancy.

The terms colt and filly are used for young horses until what age?

After that a filly is a mare and a colt a stallion.

Precocial young that leave the nest shortly after hatching are described as what?

Nidifugous ('nest-fleeing') young, like ducklings, leave the nest soon after hatching; nidicolous ('nest-dwelling') young stay and are fed.

Which birds are 'superprecocial', hatching able to run and even fly on day one?

Megapodes such as the Australian brush-turkey are superprecocial: chicks hatch fully feathered, receive no parental care, and can fly within a day.

What do hatched common cuckoo chicks do to the host's eggs?

Reed warblers, dunnocks and meadow pipits are common hosts.

Female cuckoos favouring a particular host species are grouped into what?

Female cuckoos that specialise on one host form a gens (plural gentes), each laying eggs that mimic that host's; more than 100 host species are recorded.

Temperature-dependent sex determination was first described in 1966 in which animal?

Madeleine Charnier first reported temperature-dependent sex determination in 1966 in the rainbow lizard Agama agama; alligators and turtles were shown to have it later.

Alligator eggs incubated at 30 °C produce which sex?

American alligator eggs incubated at 30 °C or below produce females, those at about 34 °C produce males, and 32 °C gives a mix.

An alligator hatchling's sex is fixed within how long of the start of incubation?

An alligator's sex is set by nest temperature during a window about seven to 21 days into incubation; after that, temperature no longer matters.

The word 'caterpillar' probably derives from Old North French words meaning what?

Caterpillar probably comes from Old North French catepelose, 'hairy cat'; any caterpillar-shaped larva, like a sawfly's, is often called one.

Honeybee larvae reared to become the colony's sole egg-layer are fed copious amounts of what?

Royal jelly, secreted from the hypopharyngeal glands of nurse bees, is fed exclusively and abundantly to larvae that will become queens.

The bee hummingbird lays how many eggs at a time, each the size of a coffee bean?

It is the smallest known bird, native to Cuba.

A kiwi's egg can be up to what proportion of the female's body weight?

A kiwi egg can be up to about 20 percent of the female's body weight, one of the largest ratios of any bird; the male incubates it in most species.

The Surinam toad incubates its eggs where?

Surinam toad eggs sink into pockets in the skin of the female's back, where they develop until fully formed miniature toads emerge after about four months.

Darwin's frog males brood their tadpoles inside what?

Male Darwin's frogs take the tadpoles into their vocal sac and brood them there until they hop out as froglets; Darwin found the species in Chile.

Which of these fish is a paternal mouthbrooder, with the male holding the eggs?

The arowana is a paternal mouthbrooder: the male holds the eggs and fry in his mouth for weeks; many African cichlids, by contrast, are maternal mouthbrooders.

Newborn lions have what feature that fades as they grow?

Lion cubs are born with dark rosette-like spots that fade as they grow; the tail tuft develops only at about five and a half months.

A cheetah litter typically has how many cubs?

Gestation is nearly three months; the cubs are weaned at around four months and on their own by about 20 months.

What colour are a zebra foal's stripes at birth?

Zebra foals are born with brown and white stripes; the brown darkens to black over their first months.

Most fawns are born with white spots that they lose by when?

Fawns lose their white spots with their first autumn moult, well before the end of their first winter; the spots camouflage them while they lie hidden in their first weeks.

How many nipples does a Virginia opossum have?

A Virginia opossum has 13 nipples, arranged as a circle of 12 with one in the middle, though litters can exceed that number.

A Tasmanian devil gives birth to how many live young after three weeks' gestation?

A Tasmanian devil bears 20 to 30 rice-grain-sized young after about three weeks, but with only four nipples in the pouch at most four survive.

Why does the wombat's pouch open backwards?

Young leave the pouch after six to seven months.

The word 'marsupial' ultimately comes from a Greek word meaning what?

Marsupial comes via Latin marsupium from Greek marsippion, a pouch or purse; most female marsupials have a pouch with several teats.

In most female mammals, average litter size is about what fraction of the number of mammae?

On average a mammal's litter is about half its number of mammae (the 'one-half rule'), with the maximum litter roughly equal to the teat count.

How are hares' young different from rabbits' at birth?

Hares' young are born furred with eyes open and can move within hours (precocial), while rabbits' are born naked and blind (altricial).

Squab, a delicacy in French and Arab cuisine, comes from birds typically under what age?

Squab comes from birds under about four weeks old, killed before they fly and so tender; it features in Jewish, Arab and French cuisines.

Which nickname is given to the pit-digging larva of the antlion?

The antlion larva, nicknamed the doodlebug for the wandering trails it leaves in sand, digs a conical pit and snatches ants that slide in.

Young salmon become which silvery stage before heading to sea?

Young salmon turn silvery and become smolts as their body chemistry adapts to salt water before they migrate to sea.

Salmon eggs hatch into what?

Salmon eggs hatch into alevins, which live off the attached yolk sac in the gravel for a few weeks before emerging as free-swimming fry.

Which Danish professor deduced that European eels spawn in the Sargasso Sea?

Johannes Schmidt, a Danish marine biologist, traced ever-smaller eel larvae across the Atlantic from 1904 and in 1922 named the Sargasso Sea as the spawning ground.

Larval eels are transparent and leaf-like; what are they called?

Eel larvae are leptocephali ('slender heads'), transparent and leaf-shaped; they were once described as a separate species, Leptocephalus brevirostris.

Aquatic insect nymphs, like those of dragonflies and mayflies, are also called what?

Aquatic nymphs of dragonflies, mayflies and stoneflies are naiads, named after the freshwater nymphs of Greek myth; dryads were tree nymphs and nereids sea nymphs.

Chimpanzee infants are weaned at about what age?

Chimpanzee infants are weaned at roughly three years old, some not until four or five, and stay close to their mothers for years afterwards.

The Atlantic puffin lays how many eggs in its clifftop burrow?

Chicks feed mostly on whole fish and grow rapidly.

The axolotl is 'neotenic', meaning it does what?

Neoteny means the axolotl matures and breeds without metamorphosis, keeping its larval external gills and fully aquatic life as an adult.

A butterfly's inactive pupal stage is known by what special name?

A butterfly pupa is a chrysalis, a hard case formed from the caterpillar's own skin; moths usually spin a silk cocoon around theirs instead.

Great white sharks are ovoviviparous; after roughly a year how many pups are born?

A great white litter is usually two to ten pups; embryos eat yolk, then a uterine 'milk', then unfertilised eggs before birth.

The domestic pig's gestation period averages how many days?

A sow's gestation averages 112 to 120 days, famously 'three months, three weeks and three days' (114); modern sows farrow about twice a year.

Which Latin word for a young goat shares a root with the English word 'goat'?

Haedus is Latin for a kid and shares an Indo-European root with English 'goat'; capra and hircus are the adult she-goat and he-goat.

A cow's gestation period is about how long?

A cow's gestation is about nine months (around 283 days); dairy cows are bred to calve roughly once a year to keep producing milk.

Meat from a sheep over about two years old is called what?

Mutton is the meat of sheep over about two years old; lamb is from animals under a year and hogget the stage in between.

A hybrid of a ewe and a male goat is jokingly known as what?

A sheep-goat hybrid is jokingly a geep; true hybrids are rare because sheep have 54 chromosomes and goats 60, and most are stillborn.

What is the set of eggs a bird lays and incubates at one time called?

A clutch is the set of eggs laid and incubated together; once hatched, the chicks are a brood, while litter and farrow are mammal terms.

The naked mole-rat was the first mammal found to have what social structure?

The naked mole-rat was the first mammal shown to be eusocial, in 1981: one breeding queen, a few breeding males and non-breeding workers; the Damaraland mole-rat is the other known case.

Kittens are described as showing 'primary altriciality' at birth, meaning what?

Primary altriciality means kittens are born fully dependent on their mother: blind, deaf, unable to regulate their temperature or even urinate without her stimulation.

Which mammal has the longest gap between births, about eight years?

Orangutan mothers breed only about every eight years, the longest birth interval of any mammal; the infant nurses for several years.

A fawn takes its first steps within about how long of birth?

A fawn is on its feet within about twenty minutes of birth, then spends its first week or so lying hidden while the doe feeds nearby.

Puppies are gradually weaned onto solid food at about what age?

Puppies start on solid food at about one month old (three to four weeks) and are fully weaned by seven or eight weeks.

How many deciduous (milk) teeth does a kitten have?

A kitten has 26 deciduous teeth, which erupt from about two weeks old and are replaced by 30 adult teeth at around six months.

Roughly how much weight does a newborn blue whale calf gain each day?

A blue whale calf gains about 90 kg a day on milk that is around 40 percent fat, and is weaned at six to eight months when roughly 16 metres long.

A newborn giant panda weighs what fraction of its mother, the smallest ratio of any placental mammal?

A newborn giant panda weighs about one part in 800 of its mother, the smallest ratio of any placental mammal; it is born pink, blind and toothless and nurses up to 14 times a day.

Where does a male emperor penguin keep the egg while incubating it through the Antarctic winter?

He engulfs it with loose skin and feathers over his brood patch for 65 to 75 days; if a couple drops the egg in handover it freezes within minutes.

What happens to a female octopus after the eggs she has guarded in her den finally hatch?

The male has usually already died after mating; octopus parents are a one-shot investment.

How does a mother scorpion carry her newborn young while their exoskeletons harden?

Newborn scorpions ride on their mother's back until their first moult hardens their exoskeleton; all scorpions give live birth.

Why can a newborn sea otter pup float like a cork but not dive?

Mothers lick and fluff the pup for hours after birth; the fluffy baby coat is replaced by adult fur after about 13 weeks.

What is 'pap', which a mother koala produces to prepare her joey for eating eucalyptus?

It comes from the mother's caecum and the joey eats it from her cloaca; joeys spend their first six to seven months in the pouch.

How tall is a newborn giraffe calf, which drops to the ground from a standing mother at birth?

A newborn giraffe calf stands 1.7 to 2 metres tall; it emerges front legs and head first, the roughly 2-metre fall severs the umbilical cord, and it can run within hours.

A brown kiwi's single egg can weigh as much as how much?

A brown kiwi egg can weigh up to 450 g, one of the largest eggs relative to body size of any bird; the female's vestigial wings hide under hair-like feathers.