Mammals are vertebrates or animals with back bones. They have large brains and a keen awareness of their surroundings. They are warm-blooded and have their skin covered with hair. The young are born alive except for egg laying platypus and sping anteater and suckle milk from the milk glands of female. You will be surprised to know that many animals which are otherwise very different from one another come under this category. For example the cow, seal and bat have nothing in common, yet they come under the category of the mammals. Man is a mammal too.

          Many of the mammals are very peculiar. Some of these live on the land, some on trees while some others inside the earth. There are some which live in water also.

          Some of them are carnivorous while others are herbivorous. Some mammals are both carnivorous and herbivorous.

          Monkey, gorilla, chimpanzee, baboon, etc. are the mammals with resembling features. Cow, pig, camel, horse, rhinoceros, elephant, rabbit, rat, squirrel etc., are some other mammals. Most of the time they live on the ground. The dugong, dolphin, whale etc., are mammals which live in water. Amongst the flying mammals are the bat and colugo. The kangaroo is a peculiar mammal that has a pouch on its belly for keeping its young ones.

          Platypus is another peculiar mammal which does not give birth to its young but lays eggs. Generally it is found in Australia. Pangolin does not have teeth. It lives on ants. The wolf, lion, cheetah, bear, cat, seal – all are mammals. There are about 4000 distinct species of mammals. It is not possible to describe all of them. Only important ones have been described here.