Wild Fauna breeding questions

So, I know that in the Guidebook Wild Fauna are treated similarly to Lone Wolves. To breed they need to meet MERs and get approval, all that jazz. This makes sense from a "we don't want parents to run off and leave baby players alone" perspective.

MERs were introduced because of overwhelming player feedback they wanted to see more restrictions on who is eligible to breed. MERs are the community's answer to this, after two seasons of restrictive breeding rights (lol) did not warrant the result players were hoping for.

1. What was the discussion behind this for animals that are raised solely by the mother? If the father is a moot point, why bother with MERs? Maybe this hasn't been discussed yet?

They are treated the same as any other character - being the sole parent was not a factor in the decision made to introduce MERs (or for that matter, the breeding requirements prior to MERs being finalized).

2. How does the approval process work if the young are meant to be NPCs, then placed as adoptables when they reach maturity? What if the cubs simply die before reaching maturity, is approval still needed?

All conceptions of a played character require PM or CM approval first. Yes, approval would still be needed since no conception can happen without CM or PM approval. In your case, CM approval. WF have the same MER requirements as any other character.

I ask these questions because for many Wild Fauna characters (including Umi here), yearly or bi-yearly breeding would be normal and expected/realistic for the species, especially since many NPC wild fauna exist in game.