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Male impalas fighting during the rut or breeding season. The rut (from the Latin rugire, meaning "to roar") is the mating season of certain mammals, which includes ruminants such as deer, sheep, camels, goats, pronghorns, bison, giraffes and antelopes, and extends to others such as skunks and elephants.
The muskox (Ovibos moschatus) [a] [b] is a hoofed mammal of the family Bovidae. [8] Native to the Arctic, it is noted for its thick coat and for the strong odor emitted by males during the seasonal rut, from which its name derives. This musky odor has the effect of attracting females during mating season.
In the English language, many animals have different names depending on whether they are male, female, young, domesticated, or in groups. The best-known source of many English words used for collective groupings of animals is The Book of Saint Albans , an essay on hunting published in 1486 and attributed to Juliana Berners . [ 1 ]
In 1900, it was first used to describe 'rut in animals; heat'. [10] [11] In British English, the spelling is oestrus or (rarely) œstrus. In all English spellings, the noun ends in -us and the adjective in -ous. Thus in Modern International English, a mammal may be described as "in estrus" when it is in that particular part of the estrous-cycle.
Stags that enter the rut in poor condition are less likely to make it through to the peak conception period. [16] Two males roaring. Male European red deer have a distinctive roar during the rut, [42] which is an adaptation to forested environments, in contrast to male American elk stags which "bugle" during the rut in adaptation to open ...
By the end of the rut, males are often badly mauled and have lost 20% of their body weight, [4] with bite-induced injuries to the penis being common. [63] The gestation period varies according to the age of the expecting mother. For first-time breeders, it lasts 114–130 days, while it lasts 133–140 days in older sows.
In the Bighorn Canyon National Recreation Area book, storyteller Old Coyote describes a legend related to the bighorn sheep. A man possessed by evil spirits attempts to kill his heir by pushing the young man over a cliff, but the victim is saved by getting caught in trees. Rescued by bighorn sheep, the man takes the name of their leader, Big Metal.
Lists of mammals by region cover mammals found in different parts of the world. They are organized by continent, region, and country, and in some places by sub-national region. Most are full species lists, while those for Australia and the Caribbean have links to more specific species lists.