They have a prehensile tail that can grab vegetation, a tube-shaped mouth for sucking up food, and when they have sex, it's the male that gets pregnant.

牠們有一條善於抓握，能夠攀住植物的尾巴、用來吸食的管狀口器，而且交配時，懷孕的會是雄海馬。

While male pregnancy in seahorses is fairly unique in the animal kingdom, their mating ritual might sound familiar.

在動物界，公海馬懷孕這件事或許聽來非常獨特，不過牠們的求偶儀式卻似曾相識。

They like to break the ice by doing some dancing.

牠們透過跳舞搭訕彼此。

Seahorses will dance with each other for days, wrapping their tails around one another, and even changing colors in the process.

海馬會持續幾天和彼此跳舞、用尾巴纏繞彼此，甚至還會在過程中變色。

This allows the couple to reinforce their bond and assess one another's reproductive ability.

海馬伴侶藉此加強彼此的情感連結，同時評估對方的生殖能力。

It also might help synchronize their movements for what comes next.

這或許也能幫助牠們律動同步，好順利地進行下一步。

The reproductive role-reversal is made possible in part by the male's brood pouch.

生殖角色之所以能倒轉，歸功於雄性的育雛袋。

The male will extend this pouch to impress his dance partner.

雄性會伸展牠的育雛袋來迷倒牠的舞伴。

The female seahorse will then deposit her eggs into the pouch using a protrusion from the bottom of her torso called an ovipositor.

接著，母海馬會透過身軀底部突出的產卵管將卵放進育雛袋裡。

Once the eggs are with the male, he will fertilize them with his sperm, ensuring that he is, in fact, the father.

一旦卵進到雄性體內，牠就會受精卵子，確保牠是堂堂正正的父親。

His work isn't done there, however.

然而牠的工作還沒結束。

The brood pouch is more than just a flap of skin to hold eggs in.

育雛袋不僅僅是拿來放卵的扁平皮囊。

During pregnancy, the male seahorse keeps blood flowing around the embryos,

懷孕期間，公海馬會保持胚胎周圍的血液流暢，

controls the salinity of the environment, and provides oxygen and nutrition to offspring.

控管環境鹽分含量，並提供胎兒氧氣和養份。

When it's time to birth his young, the male seahorse expels the newborn seahorses from his pouch using muscle contractions.

當小傢伙誕生的時刻來臨，公海馬會收縮肌肉將新生海馬噴射出育雛袋。

There can be as many as 2,000 offspring, known as "fry", but many don't make it to adulthood.

雛海馬，也就是所謂的「魚苗」數量可高達兩千隻，不過牠們多數無法撐到成年期。

Newborn seahorses are left on their own once out of the brood pouch, and most die from predators or being whisked away by ocean currents.

一旦出了育雛袋，新生海馬只能靠自己，多數會死於獵食者口中，或被海流捲走。

Less than five in every thousand will survive.

平均一千隻中只有不到五隻能存活。

Meanwhile, while the male seahorse has been busy being Mr. Mom, there are female seahorses with more eggs that are ready to be deposited.

而公海馬還忙著當個「媽媽」時，母海馬早已等著產更多的卵了。

Some male seahorses can give birth in the morning and be pregnant by the end of the day.

有些公海馬能在早上生產完，當天結束前就再度懷孕。

Back to the dance floor, Mr. Seahorse.

再接再厲吧，海馬先生。

Back to the dance floor.

再接再厲。

For more videos about animal dads, check out this playlist from our friends at the Dodo.

想看更多關於動物爸爸們的影片，點擊觀看《The Dodo》頻道的此播放清單。

Don't forget to subscribe, and keep coming back to Seeker for more videos.

別忘了訂閱，觀賞更多《Seeker》頻道影片。