1 to 3 eggs per clutch, and 2 to 3 clutches each year (for the most prolific species). The male incubates them (in most cases — in some the pair share incubation duties).
Yes for the hyena … It is true that among female primates human females are unique in risking death and injury each time they gave birth. The other great apes and primates don’t suffer from this, and I had not really read of other female species that die giving birth to their young. It seems that most other mammals give birth to much tinier tiny babies than humans relative to their body size; I don’t know this as I am just guessing.
However, I think the hyena has the worst childbirth of any mammal.
When we were back in Brazil, I experienced seeing a cow give birth. The cow was mooing softly, with so much pain and agony. That went on for about eight hours. Soon, the calf finally started making its way out, head first. My dad and others were there to hold the calf, guiding it steadily, as it made its way into its new world. The calf was able to stand on its own just minutes after coming into the world. She was such a darling, cute calf! The cow looked very exhausted after all that hard work of labour, but that surely didn't stop her from letting her calf drink some milk from her.
When we were visiting our uncle in Portugal last year, one of their pigs gave birth. The pig just lied there, breathing very hard, noticeably in pain. After about eight hours, we began to see the face of a piglet coming out. Oh, but he was so clean, so cute! Every few minutes another spotless face would pop out. She ended up having twelve piglets. It was clear, she was very exhausted after that, but that didn't stop her from letting her babies suck on her nipples. Piglets are very thirsty when they come out and by natural instinct, go directly to their mother's nipples. Some don't have that instinct yet, and must be guided that way. Some don't get to the milk in time and die. She ended up with eight live piglets.
Shoud have seen my cockatiel when it was hatching eggs for the first time in Canada, about two decades back. She would keep on leaning forward, and wouldn't stop chirping. It was so loud. She was visably in a lot of pain. We had no idea why she was acting that way. We thought the poor bird was going to die.
When I came home from a walk the next day, my brother said, so excitedly, ‘You shouldn't have left Elvis all alone. He layed an egg!’ I exclaimed, ‘What?! But he's a male!’
Within a week, she had five eggs. For each egg, she would go through the same experience. It looked like she was in a lot of pain during the process.
Every year after that, whenever she started leaning forward and chirping continuously, we knew what to expect.
Elvis was very tamed, but when she layed eggs, she would turn into an eagle. Like any mother, she was very protective of her eggs. In those times, you couldn't put food or water in her cage without getting a bloody finger.
The eggs never hatched though. We needed a male cockatiel to make that possible. Someone told me, putting the eggs in an incubator would have hatched them. That coud have been true. I remember back in grade one when our teacher brought in an incubator with some chicken eggs inside it. They eventually hatched after a few days.
Oh I can assure you it does. A friend of mine had an accidental litter of kittens two years ago and I was there when his cat gave birth. I still get shivers remembering her lamentations when she gave birth. It was surreal.
I also breed gerbils, have been for 11 years now. And I can assure you they do suffer too.
This is X. She’s a magnificent female who gave me two wonderful litters. This summer, I tried breeding her again but complications happened with the male, which ended up with her being on her own to deal with the pregnancy and the birth (usually, the male helps her out with the pups, the
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Do animals scream and go through pain like humans when giving birth?
How painful is childbirth compared to other other pains a human can suffer?How could men empathise as to how much pain women endure?
What is the real and unfiltered truth about childbirth? Is it really as bad as people say? I’ve been on the fence about actually carrying and giving birth to a baby. I want a family someday, but the pain terrifies me. Is it worth it?
The primary reason for that is the transition of human beings from a primarily quadruped species to the modern form of bipeds. The skeleton of our ancestors developed for millions of years to support a creature that walked on all fours. Now, when humans started discovering new uses of hands and benefits of walking upright, there was a problem. As the owners started benefitting from more industrious hands, evolution pushed its development further. The upright posture led to narrower hips with constricted birth canal. But wait, this was not the only problem. For eons, human species used to have significantly larger brains compared to other animals. As evolution started favoring larger brain size (which comes with better survival chances in the wild fauna), the size of heads keep getting bigger. For a comparison, modern human beings have a brain size at least 90-100% bigger than our earliest ancestors. Anyway, so a narrow birth canal and a larger head size for newborns created a double whammy. There were more and more deaths of human females during childbirth. Natural selection, hence, started favoring early births when the brain and head of the newborn are still relatively small. While that solved the problem of premature deaths, it still isn’t something that is usual. Hence, for humans, it still hurts significantly more than other animals. Most animals do not have the pain we have when giving birth. I have helped and watched many different mammals give birth ( dogs, cats, cows, goats, horses,mice) that have no more than strong straining, I have only once heard a cry that I have thought was a cry of pain. This was the first litter of kittens for this cat. She strained and strained with the four kittens, but when she was birthing the fifth , she strained plus gave constant weak cries. After we helped her with the birth of the large dead kitten by removing it by grasping the hind feet , we found that it had a birth defect called cyclopisism. The kitten had only one large eye in the center of its forehead. This is the only time I have heard simething like pain in a birthing animal. My husband, however assisted in a calving when the poor old cow was really making a racket . The calf was too large for her. To save the mother , the owner had to attach a block and tackle to her to wench out the dead calf.
Absolutely! Horses sweat, kick and bite at their stomachs, roll. Dogs pant, dig in their bedding, Cats pace, rearrange their bedding, meow, pant. Cattle are pretty stoic- The best way to tell birth is imminent is by their bag enlarging, and elongated vulva. The contractions are similar to humans- pushing the young into the canal, and opening the cervix for passage. For dogs it can take 48 hours for a litter to be born. That is why it is important to supervise, hydrate her, give energy snacks, and calcium at the right time.
However, having a newborn with under-developed brain and other vital systems significantly contributed to the rise of religions, nation states, laws, shared beliefs and human societies as a whole. If you think them as benefits, then yes, more pain during childbirth does come with perks.
Birth canal narrowing was a direct result of us standing upright (during the evolution). Many female died during delivery. Premature births increased as they were easier. Adding to the helplessness of the infants. Nature is so unfair, this thing back in the days was much probably a dinosaur… now sits uncomfortably at one of the lower points of the food chain and has to “shit” a baby in an hard case half the size of his body mass… creepy yes, but most of all hugely unfair!
This is one of the reasons that made our species more social than others as socializing was essential for taking care of babies.
Most female kiwis only lay one egg at a time. Those that lay an additional egg will lay it about 25 days after the first one is laid. Laying a third egg is rare.
Eggs hatch in 70 to 80 days.
Certainly, although humans likely have one of the most painful labor processes, due to our narrow birth canal compared with the huge size of our offspring.
But if you think that’s bad, consider the Kiwi.
Picture Source Wikipedia
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