How many animals are born every day?

How many animals are born every day around the world? First, we need to decide what we mean by the word “animals.” The Oxford Dictionary defines an animal as “a living organism that feeds on organic matter, has special senses and a nervous system, and can quickly respond to stimuli.”

This means that animals are mammals and non-mammals, vertebrates and invertebrates, those who hatch from eggs and are born alive.

To get an idea of ​​the scale of the issue, let’s start with an animal that is known for its breeding passion – the rabbit.

In the UK alone, the breeding population of wild rabbits is 40 million. The bunny rabbit usually brings up to seven litters per year, in each of which from three to seven cubs. If each female of the wild rabbit brings seven litters, in each of which there will be, say, five rabbits, then only 1,917,808 rabbits will be born in the UK alone.

But what about less common species, such as the Humboldt Penguin? The animal lives on the coast of Chile and Peru. Humboldt penguins lay eggs two at a time. A couple puts off a pair of clutches a year. Not all eggs survive the incubation period. An estimated 14,400 Humboldt penguins hatch each year. On average, up to 40 Humboldt penguins come to this world every day.

If you compare penguins with a non-vanishing species — say, with chickens — the numbers will be dramatically different. Extrapolating data collected by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, it can be estimated that more than 62 million chickens are born around the world every day.

And there are bees. During the warm months of the year, the average queen bee lays 1,500 eggs every day. In January 2018, 247,461 hives were counted in the UK. So, in the summer, 371,191,500 bee larvae appeared every day in the country.

Professor Axel Rossberg from Queen Mary University (United Kingdom) says that the number of animals of one species or another can be judged by size. Animals that weigh a thousand times less than others are usually a thousand times larger. This means that there are more bees than elephants, wood lice more than porcupines and more ants than anteaters.

One of the most common animals on the planet is nematodes, which are also known as roundworms. In one square meter of land contains three million individuals. One type of roundworm, Caenorhabditis Elegans, lays about five eggs per hour. One of the 100 eggs hatch, giving us a total of 600 C. elegans quitillions of nematodes each day. This is 6 with twenty zeros.

It is estimated that there are about 7.7 million known animal species on the planet, and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration estimates that 95% of the ocean and 99% of the ocean floor remain unexplored.

So, until we find out and study all species on Earth, the question of the number of animals that are born every day will remain unresolved.