animal fact o'the week: male seahorses are the best dads

okay the title may be a stretch, BUT male seahorses do more than most dads in the animal kingdom- they give birth!

after performing a mating ritual dance (see video below), the female seahorse implants her eggs into the male, who then fertilizes them (see the video below the video below)(this one feels a little invasive… but it’s just so cool to see)

male seahorses birth up to 2000 teeny-tiny youngins at a time. the incubation period is 10 to 25 days, depending on the species, and during this time the female grows new eggs. this process makes for super effective reproduction- the female has time (& energy) to grow more eggs while the male carries the babies. he can actually be impregnated with a new litter the same day he gives birth to the others.

animal fact o'the week: wombat poop

so i’m obsessed with animal facts. i love learning lil tidbits about the wonders & delights of the world all around us….. it gives me hope, usually makes me giggle, and gives me the opportunity to reflect upon how enchanting our lives on this magnificent planet are.

so for the first one… let’s talk about wombat’s fabulous feces!

wombats, the adorable short-legged marsupial beans native to Austrailia, have CUBE SHAPED POOP! what! (yo what do their butts look like?!) they produce 80-100 dice-sized poop cubes a night. some scientists say it’s to mark territory (cubed poos never roll away) but i think they wanted to make biodegradeable stackable blocks for their kiddos. only the wombats themselves could answer our questions but unfortunately they don’t speak any human languages (yet).

if you are interested in hearing more about their excellent excrement, one of my favorite podcasts “every little thing” hosted by flora lichtman & produced by gimlet media, has an excellent episode about the subject called “Who Invented the Bloomin’ Onion? Plus, Biology’s Best Butt”

and i know you need to see a picture of the world’s #1 number two so here ya go: