There's nothing quite like watching a seahorse give birth to 2,000 tiny babies. National Geographic published this video showing one shoot offpsring out of its stomach, bursts of tiny yellow specks exploding into the water. I can't believe how cute and small they are!
Fewer than five in 1000 survive to adulthood
Though male seahorses give birth, they're not big on fatherly duties. The "fry", as baby seahorses are called, are on their own.
The male seahorse has a pouch on its stomach in which to carry babies—as many as 2,000 at a time. A pregnancy lasts from 10 to 25 days, depending on the species.
The reproductive process begins when a male and a female seahorse do daily pre-dawn dances, intertwining their tails and swimming together. Eventually they engage in a true courtship dance, which can last as long as eight hours. It ends with the female depositing her eggs in the male's pouch.
"Their mating ritual is quite beautiful," said Sarah Foster, a research biologist at McGill University in Montreal who is involved in Project Seahorse.
