Evolutionarily, why are kittens and pups born blind & deaf; when it decreases their chances of survival?
They're born with their eyes and ears shut...so they're literally blind + deaf. This is a scientific fact, you can google it. And they're too tiny as well, especially kittens Why is that so, when it decreases their chances of survival? They could have an easier time protecting themselves/looking for...
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answers:
Fred say: Maybe it is to stop them wandering away from their home until they learn to stay put so mom can find them. They are to small to actually protect themselves so likely it is better if they cannot see or hear.
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ron h say: interesting. I dunno. But remember that elephants and horses and a lot of other mammals need to be able to stand up and run within hours of birth, and that just amazes me.
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Enough Trolls say: Simple evolutionary trade off. Mammals invest in a smaller number but more developed young - compared to fish or reptiles.
So moer developed is good BUT the need to learn as well - mammals do learning much more thna other life forms. More developed AT BIRTH means bigger at birth and so less produced. So this is evolution settling for decent chances of survival and growth time in a safe place. Wilderbeest can walk fast - but have drastically limited learning ability and a low reproduction rate. It's all a balance of numbers born, development ability, time to grow. Dumb mammals with developed senses have a low reproduction rate and attrocious learning curves.
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oikoσ say: Are they any more altricial than human beings? We can see and hear but can't interpret out sensory input properly. Yet humans seem to survive quite well.
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MARK say: In the wild, a female carrying a litter of puppies or kittens is slowed down and has a harder time trying to catch prey. In the social structure of a pack, members are expected to do their part in a hunt and carrying pups put the female at a disadvantage. The evolutionary trade off for canids and felids was a short gestation period and larger litters that are born immature and completely dependent on their mother. With her infants safely tucked away inside a warm den, the mother is free to resume hunting while caring for infants in between hunts.
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Chi girl say: The fact that there are surpluses of both indicates they survive quite well.
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Ricardo say: All predators are, they prey aren't.
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Gardyloo say: J beat me to it.

There are too many as it is so evolution has treated them just fine.
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Bill say: It's a trade-off between the young animal's survival and the mother's if she carried them for a longer time.
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J say: Yet they have an out of control population so they are doing all right.
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john say: Education has blinded you to the truths of nature. It's rare when animals attack the young even tame animals like dogs and cats are safe from being savaged by the wild. Being blind and blinded in nature is common most animals do not see with human manufactured twenty twenty vison.

The truth is most people train the animals that associate with them to attack and savage.

People can do this without revenge due to our numbers and our skill in hiding. Plus rarely are people guiltrulidden by having their animals attacked while those people run and hide.


And then nature's mothers are very skilled in hiding there newborns from the eyes of man so it's very rare when the young need to hide from man's grabby hands and eyes.
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say: They're mammals. Their mothers care for them until that happens. They do not and cannot survive on their own. MAMMALS. It's a thing.
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poldi2 say: They need time to be taught by their mothers how to hunt for food and how to survive. The first few weeks allows the mother to bond with the newborns, which establishes a relationship so they listen and learn from her.
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Riley say: Mammals have larger brains than fish and reptiles (and other non-mammals). They require more time to fully develop their brain. They are born premature and taken care of so they can develop enough to live independently. The human brain isn't fully developed until age 25.
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Everard say: Their mothers look after them
Like most mammal mothers look after off-spring..

You really should have gone to a real school.
Home-schooling should be a crime.
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jpopelish say: If they were born more mature,
their mother could not carry as many.
So evolution has found the balance point
between their being defenseless
(except for being defended by their mother)
and being many.

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Regards,

John Popelish
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Violation Nation!! say: Evolution doesn't make decisions to optimize you. Our bodies are trainwrecks in motion, in case you haven't noticed. Our eyes are back to front and have an entire sensory system devoted to making us see (sort've) correctly. Hell, we're PROGRAMMED TO AGE.

That's a pretty freakin' huge defect. Dying from time. We didn't start with that. It got put in.

You don't evolve to fit your environment. You evolve and the ones that survive in that environment pass on those traits.
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