Reproduction
Depending on the quality of the habitat, four-toed elephant shrews breed throughout the year, showing an increase in reproduction when more feeding grounds are accessible. The lowland forests and savannas offer shelter from the midday heat and resting places, as well as suitable birth places. Copulation typically occurs on land, and unlike other mammals, they are monogamous) in nature. Their mating patterns involve sexual intercourse over several days, after which each mate returns to its single lifestyle. The females in this species experience a period of gestation between 40 and 60 days and give birth to one or two offspring. The young are born in a highly developed state and are weaned by their mothers after 15–25 days; the young reach full sexual maturity close to 50 days after birth.
Read more about this topic: Four-toed Elephant Shrew
Famous quotes containing the word reproduction:
“The chief function of the city is to convert power into form, energy into culture, dead matter into the living symbols of art, biological reproduction into social creativity.”
—Lewis Mumford (1895–1990)
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—Joanna Cole (20th century)
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—Ludwig Wittgenstein (1889–1951)