Animal Adaptations Part 2

Animal Adaptations project part 2

1.

Japanese seahorse -Hippocampus mohnikei: This Japanese seahorse reaches a maximum length of 8 cm. The Japanese seahorse’s colour is usually dark brown, has a long tail, and flattened spines. It lives near the seas of japan as written in the name.

The Dwarf seahorse - Hippocampus zosterae: This seahorse is found in the Bahamas and the US. Its habitat is aquatic beds, and it’s threatened by habitat loss. It is the slowest fish in the world traveling at about 152 cm per hour, according to Guinness world records.

2.

The general habitat of the Hedgehog seahorse are aquatic beds, usualy because some light can reach them. The Hedgehog seahorse has a narrow niche because it depends on very few resources like Mysis, and small shrimp.

3.

The reason why Hedgehog seahorses are endangered is that there is an increasing population of predators such as penguins, mantees and crabs. Penguins have been increasing because there are less whale and a decreasing population of seals. Whale and seals are both hunted over the last decade. Less than 2 year ago the European uninon started banning seal products which have statistically shown that killing number of seals has went from 300,000 a year to 60,000. This was made to regulate seal population. Mantees population has been slowly increasing because there are now more search teams to save mantees such as "Save the Mantees Club". Crabs population have increased over the last 5 years because Virgina and Maryland have band crab fishing. After this banning there has been an increase of 60% population for Cheaspeake Bay's crab. Hedgehog seahorses are also endangered because there are more search for these seahorses to know more about them, and that some areas in China hunt seahorses to eat them on skewers.

4.

If the Hedgehog seahorses went extinct there would be a slight increase in Mysis, and shrimp. There also could be a very little decrease to penguins, mantees, and crabs. The other similar seahorse species living in the same area wouldn’t have to compete as much as they would use to.

5.

A possible zoo habitat for the hedgehog seahorse could be the Calgary zoo. The Calgary zoo could keep the hedgehog seahorse in a artifical aquatic bed with decoration and corals so that it feels in its habitat. The artifical aquatic bed could also have artifical waves so that the seahorse thinks it's getting stromy or windy. They could have filter system to clean the water while leaving the same distribution of seasalt. Food can be given to it by automatic feeders. Calgary zoo keeps lots of protection for its species and can make limitations to viewers if it’s to improve the species condition - if it's getting scared or feels violated. Another possible location could be the London zoo as they too keep lots of protection for their animals and species and can buy the correct material for the structure of the hedgehog seahorses habitat.

Refrences

Information from these sources


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_seahorse
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dwarf_seahorse
http://wiki.answers.com/Q/Why_is_the_population_of_seals_decreasing
http://www.hsus.org/protectseals.html
http://www.physorg.com/news190528199.html

Pictures from these sources

http://www.starfish.ch/photos/fishes-Fische/seahorses-Seepferdchen/Hippocampus-mohnikei1.jpgmohnikei1.jpg
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d3/Hippocampuszosterae.jpg