Why can't they "mate" all-year round, but humans can?
2007-09-07 10:33:33 · 6 answers · asked by Anonymous in Science & Mathematics ➔ Zoology
It has a lot to do with weather and food availability. The young have to be born when there is actually food around for them to eat. If they were born in the winter they would either freeze or starve to death. Birds in the tropics can breed year round because they not only have warm weather but food available all year long.
2007-09-07 13:26:46 · answer #1 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 0⤋
Some animals can and do mate all year round just as humans do. Others are strictly seasonal. Evolution favours successful breeders. Animals that produce their young when there is plenty of food around will be more suceessful than those that bear young when there is little food. The young born at the wrong time will starve and not live to breed. Those that are born at the right time will be successful.
There are other factors involved in the timing of mating but they all lead to successful breeding. Those that beed at the wrong time die out, those that breed at the right time survive and pass their genes to the next generation.
2007-09-07 18:03:02 · answer #2 · answered by tentofield 7 · 2⤊ 0⤋
Because many animals have very strict environmental cues - like, when prey animals are around, when prey animals AREN'T around, when it's winter, when it's summer...
Animals only mate at certain times because their young will then be BORN at certain times, and those times when the young are born are the best times for the young to grow.
2007-09-07 17:51:34 · answer #3 · answered by Brian L 7 · 2⤊ 0⤋
It's nature's way of controlling population growth!
Thus the phrase "breeding like animals', if they didn't have seasons they would be pepetually breeding!
2007-09-07 18:10:47 · answer #4 · answered by Me 7 · 1⤊ 0⤋
animals are subject to the environment and must therefore breed when seasons are favorable.
2007-09-08 00:20:43 · answer #5 · answered by cero143_326 4 · 1⤊ 0⤋
I did not know that silly rabbit. Thanx for the info.
2007-09-08 00:07:40 · answer #6 · answered by swd 6 · 1⤊ 0⤋