Longest Gestation Periods in Mammals
How long different mammals carry their young before birth, measured in days. The African elephant has the longest pregnancy of any land animal at around 670 days - nearly 22 months - far longer than a human's roughly 9 months.
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Longest Gestation Periods in MammalsThe African elephant (670 days) tops the list, carrying its young for well over twice as long as a human (270 days) and more than ten times longer than a dog. A clear pattern links body size and gestation: the largest animals - elephant, sperm whale (535), white rhinoceros (467) and walrus (456) - occupy the top of the list, as bigger offspring simply take longer to develop. The giraffe (430) and Bactrian camel (390) follow, while familiar domestic animals cluster lower: donkey (365), horse (336) and cow (283) all sit near or just above the human figure. The range shows how mammalian reproduction scales with size, with the biggest species investing almost two years in a single pregnancy.
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Longest Gestation Periods in Mammals
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