A litter of pigs

A litter is a group of newly born, young animals from the same mother and usually from one set of parents. The word is most often used for a group of baby mammals, but can refer to the young of any animals that give birth to multiple young. In comparison, a group of eggs and the offspring that hatch from them are frequently called a clutch, whilst young birds are often called a brood. Pig litter from http://www. ... Pig litter from http://www. ... Species Sus barbatus Sus bucculentus Sus cebifrons Sus celebensis Sus domesticus Sus heureni Sus philippensis Sus salvanius Sus scrofa Sus timoriensis Sus verrucosus Pigs are ungulates native to Eurasia collectively grouped under the genus Sus within the Suidae family. ... Phyla Porifera (sponges) Ctenophora (comb jellies) Cnidaria Placozoa Subregnum Bilateria  Acoelomorpha  Orthonectida  Rhombozoa  Myxozoa  Superphylum Deuterostomia     Chordata (vertebrates, etc. ... Parenting comprises all the tasks involved in raising a child to an independent adult. ... Orders Subclass Embrithopoda (extinct) Subclass Creodonta (extinct) Hyaenodontidae Oxyaenidae Subclass Multituberculata (extinct) Plagiaulacida Cimolodonta Subclass Palaeoryctoides (extinct) Subclass Triconodonta (extinct) Subclass Placentalia Afrosoricida Artiodactyla Carnivora Cetacea Chiroptera Dermoptera Desmostylia (extinct) Hyracoidea Insectivora Lagomorpha Macroscelidea Perissodactyla Pholidota Primates Proboscidea Rodentia Scandentia Sirenia Tubulidentata Xenarthra Subclass Marsupialia Dasyuromorphia Didelphimorphia Diprotodontia Microbiotheria Notoryctemorphia... Look up Egg in Wiktionary, the free dictionary Egg has multiple meanings: The term is used synonymously with ovum, the female sex cell in animals and plants. ... Zerg Brood brood comb: the area in a beehive where the queen lays eggs and new bees are raised This is a disambiguation page — a navigational aid which lists other pages that might otherwise share the same title. ...

Animals frequently display grouping behaviour in herds, swarms, flocks, or colonies, and these multiple births derive similar advantages. A litter offers some protection from predation, not particularly to the individual young but to the parents' investment in breeding. With multiple young, predators could eat several and others could still survive to reach maturity, but with only one offspring, its loss could mean a wasted breeding season. The other significant advantage is the chance for the healthiest young animals to be favoured from a group. Rather than it being a conscious decision on the part of the parents, the fittest and strongest baby competes most successfully for food and space, leaving the weakest young, or runts, to die through lack of care. Categories: Animal stubs | Animal behaviour | Social psychology ... School of juvenile herring - many fish have the opercula wide open for ram feeding and you can see the red gills The term swarm (schooling or swarming) is applied to fish, birds and insects and describes a behavior of an aggregation (school) of animals of similar size and body orientation... Categories: Animal stubs | Animal behaviour | Social psychology ... In biology, a colony (from Latin colonia) means several individual organisms of the same species living closely together, usually for mutual benefit, such as stronger defences, the ability to attack bigger prey etc. ... A Garden Orb Weaver Eating a bee Predation is an interaction between organisms (animals) in which one organism captures and feeds upon another called the prey. ...

In the wild, only a small percentage, if any, of the litter may survive to maturity, whereas domesticated animals and those in captivity with human care may see the survival of the whole litter. Animals that do not produce multiple births may mimic the advantages of multiple births by breeding in colonies where breeding is timed to coincide with the birth of many other young animals. Domesticated animals, plants, and other organisms are those whose collective behavior, life cycle, or physiology has been altered as a result of their breeding and living conditions being under human control for multiple generations. ...