繁衍子嗣這件大事

05-15

中文字：900，建議閱讀時間：1.2分鐘；英文字：537

What is the gestation period?

The gestation period is how long it takes an animal to be born, from conception to

birth. The human woman will take on average 38 weeks to give birth. While other

animals will have different gestation periods there is a correlation with the

longer the gestation period the longer the animals will live. It also

correlates with the cost of survival.

The cost of survival

While the goal of all animals is to spread their genes, so giving birth and finding a

mate is high priority. Although there are animals that will go through the

trouble of finding a mate going through the gestation period and once given

birth they will kill the baby and eat it. What most people think is this is

evil and a bizarre behaviour there must be something wrong with the animal.

But this is a survival technique that has work for the species for a long time that it has

become a natural ability, although it will only be done by animals that have a

small gestation period. The longer it takes for a baby to be born the more

effort the animals will put into caring for the child even after the baby is

born, as it takes more time and energy and food to raise the child

The shortest known gestations period is the Virginian opossum with giving birth

every 12 days, so if the opossum is in danger it will leave the babies to die

or eat them to gain more energy to escape, as it can mate and give birth in

such a short time. While the longest know gestations, period is the Indian

Elephant which takes 22 months to give birth, since it takes a such a long time

to give birth theIndian elephants will be more invested in the young elephant

even having other elephants in the pride to look after the baby and you can see

elephants become very emotional when one of the babies die and some even refuse

to leave the baby after the child has died, which is very sad.

There are some animals such as lioness which will use gestation period as a strategy to

look after the cubs, all the lioness in the pack will breed at the same time so

that they will always be mothers to give the cubs milk while the other mothers

hunt for food. But if a new alpha lion moves into the pack they will allow the

new male to kill the new born cubs, as they are from inferior male and would

rather breed with the new male for protection.

Many animals have the gestation period to match the seasons such as grazing animals

like zebras and antelope this means they will breed in the winter or fall and

the time they give birth it will be spring and there is a lot of vegetation for

the young to eat. Since there is a lot more food this means that the animals

can take a little more time to make sure their babies will be able to walk and

run from predators. Although many herbivore animals will be able to walk as

soon as they are born.

中文翻譯

什麼叫做妊娠期呢？

所謂妊娠期就是指動物從懷孕到寶寶出生所需要的時間。人類的平均懷孕周期為38周，但是不同的物種其妊娠期也不一樣，通常妊娠期越長，動物的壽命也就越長，當然壽命的長短也與其生活成本有關。

如果該物種生存意義是傳播基因，那麼找到配偶並繁殖後代就是優先選擇項。儘管在找配偶並且繁殖的過程中可能付出生命的代價，但是生命的意義就是如此，不惜肝腦塗地，在人類看來可能愚不可及，但是本能驅動就是如此，身為人類的我們又有多少力量抗拒本能呢。

繁殖這一本能卻在不同生物進化的世世代代中不斷上演著，該本能在動物繁殖期表現尤為顯著。通常孕育期越長，產後對於幼崽的照顧期也就越長，對於幼崽投入的精力與食物也越多。

已知最短妊娠期的動物是維吉尼亞州的負鼠，它們每12天就能產仔，所以一旦負鼠陷入危險境地，它們就會拋棄自己的後代或者吃掉自己的孩子以增加能量幫助自己脫困，畢竟想要孩子對於它們來說那是分分鐘的事。有最短就有最長，世上孕育周期最長的動物是印度大象，它們一胎的妊娠期需要耗時22個月，就是因為如此之長的懷孕周期，讓印度大象對於寶寶出生後的投入也更多，甚至群落中其他的大象也會過來幫忙照顧。了解大象的人會發現，它們是非常感性的動物，如果象寶寶死了，一些大象甚至不願拋棄它們的屍體，那場景真的是令人動容。

有一些動物如獅子對於孕育時期的選擇也相當具有戰略性，群落中的雌獅會選擇在同一時間哺育後代，因為一旦同時懷孕，所有的雌獅就會在同時成為母親，這樣的好處就是一個雌獅可以同時照看多個幼崽，剩餘的雌獅就會有時間外出狩獵。但是如果這個群落的雄獅被新的獅王所取代，雌獅也會允許新獅王將之前與上一任產下的幼崽殺死，因為雌獅明白，這些遺留下來的幼崽不會得到新獅王的保護，只有與新獅王重新繁殖後代，它們自己也才會有靠山。

還有一些動物會根據季節選擇交配期，像斑馬和羚羊。它們選擇在秋冬季節進行交配，這樣就能在來年春天產仔，畢竟萬物復甦的季節，食物也更充沛，哺育後代也相對容易。食物一旦充足那麼動物家長們也能確保幼崽有能力脫離天敵的魔爪，雖然很多食草動物一生下來就能走路，但畢竟如果營養不良，體能有問題的話，在那些食肉者面前就是死路一條。