Yesterday Beth E. Johnson wrote:

"Other than artifically manipulated dairy cows I'm not aware of any other
mammal
that has obvious breasts while not lactating (and indeed, even before
pregnancy).  Is it due to a lack of adjacent structures?"

I don't think I can enlighten you much, Beth but I can give you a small
snippit of information from Kathy D. that she posted in response to an
article over breast shape in humans (i.e. the Gillian Bentley research):

*"Her claim that "Mothers among our close relatives, such as chimpanzees and
bonobos, are all but flat-chested." is not accurate, as is easily refutable
by a trip to a zoo with breeding primates, or a look at a book about
bonobos.  Bonobos especially -- which used to be called pygmy chimpanzees --
have breasts just like human breasts, but with longer nipples.  "*

After I read this I took a look at some photo's I took of orangutans in the
wild (ok, semi-wild in that they were attached to a rehabilitation centre) -
they also have breasts! In the summer holidays we will probably go to a
monkey / ape zoo where the have great apes (bonobos, gorillas en
orangutans), I'm going to take a pair of binochulars (the animals are in
huge outside enclosures) and try and get a good look!

Actually, if you look at a horse (also one that has never been in foal) you
can clearly see that they have two mamary glands. They are not just nipples
(like you see on a bitch that has never had puppies), you also see what
looks like 'breast tissue'. If there are any vets out there please correct
me!

Maybe there are lots of mammals that have more visible glands? Who knows?

Sara Bernard
(lay breastfeeding counsellor  - Vereniging Borstvoeding Natuurlijk, The
Netherlands - almost!)

             ***********************************************
The LACTNET mailing list is powered by L-Soft's renowned
LISTSERV(R) list management software together with L-Soft's LSMTP(TM)
mailer for lightning fast mail delivery. For more information, go to:
http://www.lsoft.com/LISTSERV-powered.html