[ **up: [[Mammals]]** ]
---
# Lactation
[[2025-0320. 'Mammals are distinguished by the ability to nurse their young. Lactation has been a crucial factor in the evolution of mammalian parental investment and reproductive strategies ...'|'Lactation has been a crucial factor in the evolution of mammalian parental investment and reproductive strategies ...']][^1]
---
## Mammary number and litter size
[[2025-0320. 'Mammary number may limit litter size in an evolutionary sense.'|'Mammary number may limit litter size in an evolutionary sense.']][^2]
---
## Pheromones
### Humans
- [[Breastfeeding (Chestfeeding)#Pheromones|There might be a human mammary pheromone]]
### Rabbits
[[2025-0320. The rabbit mammary pheromone, 2-methylbut-2-enal, triggers the 'suckling of rabbit pup'.|The rabbit mammary pheromone, 2-methylbut-2-enal, triggers the 'suckling of rabbit pup'.]][^3] (*See:* [[2-methylbut-2-enal (Pheromone)]])
---
- *See also:*
- [[Breastfeeding (Chestfeeding)]]
- [[Rabbits#Circadian rhythm & rabbit lactation|Circadian rhythm and rabbit lactation]]
[^1]: Avery Nelson Gilbert, ‘[[Gilbert. ‘Mammary number and litter size in Rodentia_ The “one-half rule”’, 1986.|Mammary number and litter size in Rodentia: The "one-half rule"]]’, *Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America*, vol. 83, no. 13 (1 July 1986), p. 4828.
[^2]: Avery Nelson Gilbert, ‘[[Gilbert. ‘Mammary number and litter size in Rodentia_ The “one-half rule”’, 1986.|Mammary number and litter size in Rodentia: The "one-half rule"]]’, *Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America*, vol. 83, no. 13 (1 July 1986), p. 4829.
[^3]: Tristram D. Wyatt, ‘[[Wyatt. ‘Pheromones’, 2017.|Pheromones]]’, *Current Biology*, vol. 27, issue 15 (7 August 2017), p. R740.