• Question: Do animals have belly buttons? :)

    Asked by to Anna, Iain, Nick on 20 Mar 2014. This question was also asked by xmarijaax.
    • Photo: Anna Middleton

      Anna Middleton answered on 20 Mar 2014:

      Hi loispoischeeseface
      Yes they do, but sometimes it’s really hard to see them.

      The belly button forms when a baby is born and it is detached from its mother – mothers and babys are attached to each other in the tummy by the umbillical cord. When a baby is born you have to ‘cut the cord’. In animals the mother will often bite the cord so separate the baby, once the baby is a few weeks old the belly button forms in the place where the umbillical cord was.

    • Photo: Nick Goldman

      Nick Goldman answered on 20 Mar 2014:

      All mammals have a belly button or “navel”.

    • Photo: Iain Moal

      Iain Moal answered on 21 Mar 2014:

      Not all animals have belly buttons, but some do. Our belly button is where the umbilical cord connected us to our mothers before we were born. Most mammals have this cord, and so have belly buttons. However, some mammals, like marsupials (like kangaroos, koalas) and monotremes (platypuses and echidnas), don’t. Also, animal that lay eggs don’t have umbilical cords either, so they also don’t have belly buttons.

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