• Question: This is more of a question about animals. If the male seahorse carry the kids around, does that mean they have periods? Woah, i guess it would be pretty freaky if they did, becuase they're a guy! So.. A male seahorse gives birth to the kids but not the mum?? My goodness, they're like opposites to us! I can tell we didn't evolve from them!

    Asked by jess98xx to Davie, Gemma, James P, James V, Nuala on 26 Jun 2012.
    • Photo: James Pope

      James Pope answered on 26 Jun 2012:

      Hi jess98xx

      I assume that seahorses lay eggs as opposed to giving birth live young, so they won’t have a period in the way of a human. While seahorses are I think the only species where the male gives birth, there are a number of species were the male is left to raise the young, so in some ways it’s not too uncommon.

      If you go back far enough we will have a common ancestor with seahorses, but it could be hundred of millions of years ago! But somewhere in their evolution the advantage that the male gives birth became good enough to ensure the species survived and so it stayed!

      It is unusual though!

    • Photo: James Verdon

      James Verdon answered on 26 Jun 2012:

      Hi jess,
      Just like in all other animals, the females produce eggs, while the males produce sperm. The difference is that, while in most animals, the male transfers his sperm into the female to fertilise the eggs, in sea horses it is the female transfers her eggs to the male to be fertilised.

      The males have a special pouch for holding the eggs. When seahorses mate, the female deposits her eggs into the male’s pouch. That’s her job done, and she swims away. The male then releases sperm into the pouch to fertilise the eggs. The eggs grow in his pouch and then hatch. The baby seahorses still live a bit longer in the pouch, before they are released into the sea to swim away and begin their own lives. So it’s not properly giving birth, because the babies are living in this pouch where the eggs are stored and then hatched. But it is the male that does all the hard work!

      Don’t ask me how I know all of this – my girlfriend loves seahorses because she thinks they’re cute!

    • Photo: Nuala Carson

      Nuala Carson answered on 27 Jun 2012:

      Hey jess98xx,

      Yeah James V is right. The women produce the eggs and the men the sperm (just like us). The difference is that the fertilization doesn’t occur in the females womb but in the males special pouch (not like us). The does not mean that the male will have periods, as that is related to female reproductive organs and release of eggs. I don’t even think that female sea horses have periods but i really don’t know!

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