That extended bf-ing programme....

[SoupDragon]

... made me wonder a few things.

Are we the only mammal who does child-led weaning? Do other mammals effectively tell their offspring to bog off at some point?

What mammal feeds its offspring for the longest?

Now there's a challenge to find out..

www.whatthebook.com/book/1930775059

I do think we think about this sort of thing too much when "in the wild" so to speak we would have cut our children free long before they turned 8 (to use an extreme example).

In my (limited) experience, other mammals most definitely get the hump with their offspring. Seen dogs, goats, sheep, cows etc all turn around and physically prevent further suckling after a certain point. Continuing to milk diary animals usually requires restraints and food!

Interestingly, though, the tolerance for extended suckling does vary between individual animals, some seem interested in weaning much earlier than others.

Seems like an opportune moment to bring out a fact that DH read in his scuba diving book the other day about Blue Whale calves. Apparently they nurse for 7 to 8 months and consume 100 gallons of milk each day, and gain 8 pounds an hour.

100 gallons!! Blimey!

Mind you, I like the idea of beig bribed with food to b-feed... not so sure about the restraints.