Seahorses are amazing creatures, seemingly made up from the spare parts of so many other animals.
They have the head of a horse, the long, prehensile tail of a monkey, swivelling eyes and colour changing abilities of a chameleon and the pouch of a kangaroo.
Their strangest, peculiarity is the male getting pregnant and giving birth. It is a true male pregnancy, the only one of its kind in the animal kingdom.
The stunning drawing to the right, and others on this page are by wildlife educational artist Ian Hughes and they show all the parts of the seahorse.
All of Ian’s drawings have copyright on them and so please do not use them without Ian’s permission.
To see Ian’s work click on the button below
In the picture on the right is a Spiny Seahorse hiding in seagrass. It’s not easy to see as the spines (cirri) on its body help it to blend into its environment.
Seahorses are masters of camouflage, by being able to change colour to blend into the background like a chameleon, they can also grow and absorb the spines on their body; making them more weed-like. The Pygmy seahorses can even grow lumps (tubercules) on their bodies resembling the lumps and bumps of the sea fans they live on.
Seeing seahorses in the wild is equally as difficult for SCUBA divers, because as soon as the seahorse senses a predator (A diver) nearby they go absolutely still and will not move until they feel safe.
The first thing they do when they want to ‘disappear’ is to turn their backs on the threat and this presents a very narrow profile to any potential threat.
So if the male gets pregnant and has the babies why is he the male?, the short answer to this, is he still has all the male bits and pieces. However he does have a brood pouch under the belly attached to the front of the tail in which to keep and nurture his babies (fry) in.
After the male and female undergo their morning courtship display, if he is not pregnant, then they will rise in the water column together and at the vital point they turn to face each other, the female then puts her ovipositor into the entrance of the males pouch, which is at the top.
The female deposits her eggs into him, and once full of eggs he sinks to the seabed, he then wiggles, twists and turns so that all the eggs are fertilised.
The eggs embed themselves into the lining of the pouch, where they will grow into fully formed miniature seahorses.
Depending on the species, they are born anywhere from 14 to 30 days later. Once born, they are on their own, and within 24 to 48 hours the male is pregnant again.
The female is on the left of the picture and the male on the right, with his large brood pouch below his belly.
The Seahorse Trust was set up in 1999 as an umbrella organisation to preserve and conserve the natural world, especially the marine environment using Seahorses as our flagship species. We work in partnership through a Seahorse Alliance with many organisations and people from all over the world and it is this unique partnership that allows us to achieve so much in the conservation of seahorses and their environment for the future.
© 2024 The Seahorse Trust.
