Results: New Year's Babies At The Aquarium
Published on 01/04/2019
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While most of us were busy saying goodbye to 2018, Toronto's Ripley's Aquarium staff were saying hello to the newest members of their aquatic family. Ripley's Aquarium Canada proudly announced the birth of a herd of lined seahorses Tuesday – the aquarium's own New Year's Day babies. Seahorses are one of the few species where the males bear the unborn young, carrying up to 2000 babies in a pouch on their stomachs. Pregnancy can last between 10 to 25 days depending on the species. Did you know this interesting fact about seahorses?
Yes
33%
774 votes
No
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1575 votes
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Seahorses and their close relatives the pipefish and the seadragons are very unusual, because it is the males that get pregnant and give birth to the babies. While this may be the only example of males actually getting pregnant and giving birth, there are some very interesting facts about gender, pregnancy and birth you may not know. How many of these interesting facts did you know?
Male alligator pipefish, long slender fish with tube-like snouts, carry their young in a protective pouch before giving birth.
8%
181 votes
Emperor penguin papas go through a lot for their babies. While mom is gone for food, the male stays keeping the egg warm on his feet for two months straight, without feeding.
37%
861 votes
Clownfish, wrasses, moray eels, gobies and other fish species are known to change sex, including reproductive functions. A school of clownfish is always built into a hierarchy with a female fish at the top. When she dies, the most dominant male changes sex and takes her place.
12%
286 votes
West African frogs have been known to spontaneously change sex from female to male. This likely occurs when the population does not have enough males to allow procreation and is accomplished when a chemical trigger activates the sex gene to disintegrate the female organs and develop the male ones.
12%
292 votes
Arowanas, freshwater fish found in South America, Africa, Asia and Australia, often protect their eggs by holding them in their mouths -- a technique called mouthbrooding.
7%
155 votes
After a female dog "goes into heat" and experiences a fertile period, even if she has not actually mated, she may experience pregnancy symptoms like vomiting, fluid retention, enlargement of the mammaries, and even milk production. She may also begin engaging in typical pregnancy behaviors, like nesting and feeling restless. On occasion, dogs experiencing a false pregnancy will even go through a false labor, and fixate on a small toy or other item afterwards, protecting and caring for it as if it were a young puppy.
13%
299 votes
Giraffes can only give birth standing up. If a giraffe mother were to sit or lie down while giving birth, the baby could be crushed. The standing birth also serves another function: a newborn baby giraffe drops out of a standing mother's vagina, which is typically about six feet in the air — a drop which severs the umbilical cord.
21%
503 votes
Certain species of female spiders are able to engage in a practice called "sperm dumping" — basically, when these spiders mate, sperm doesn't flow directly into their reproductive organs; rather, it enters a sac, which the female spider can decide about later — she'll either expel and dispose of the sperm, or use the sperm to conceive.
4%
91 votes
Typically, octopus mothers guard their eggs for several months, a period of time where they don't eat or really move — and after their young hatch, the mothers die.
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122 votes
Knew all of these
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90 votes
Knew none
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1120 votes
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Human pregnancies typically last for nine months, but if you ask most women (and men), it seems like a "lifetime". Imagine how an elephant feels! Elephants have the longest pregnancies of any mammal — an African elephant stays pregnant for a 22 months — and when they give birth, their entire pack huddles around them, to protect the mother and baby from predators, like lions. Here are some other pregnancy trivia facts -- how many were you aware of?
Knew about the elephant gestation record
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785 votes
The shortest gestation period of any mammal in North America is the opossum -- only 12 to 13 days. But since the lifespan of an opossum is only two to four years, it's all relative.
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166 votes
The largest mammal litter ever recorded at a single birth is 36, in the case of the common tenrec (Centetes ecaudatus) found in Madagascar and the Comoro Islands. Most litters number about 14.
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113 votes
Elephant moms nurse their calves for four to six years. Even after they are weaned, elephants stay with their mothers for about 16 years.
18%
412 votes
The ocean sunfish or common mola can release 300 million eggs over the course of one spawning season. .
3%
79 votes
Knew all of these
4%
91 votes
Knew none
53%
1252 votes
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