Trivia question for Mar-10-2011

Carter picked this animal for today’s trivia because he was appalled when he learned one fact in particular.  Let’s see how much you know about Sea-horses.

There are nearly 50 species of seahorse. They are mainly found in shallow tropical and temperate waters throughout the world. They prefer to live in sheltered areas such as seagrass beds, coral reefs, or mangroves. The male seahorse is equipped with a brood pouch on the ventral, or front-facing, side. When mating, the female seahorse deposits up to 1,500 eggs in the male’s pouch. The male carries the eggs for anywhere from 9 to 45 days until they emerge, expelling fully-developed, miniature seahorses in the water. Once the seahorse babies are released into the water, the male’s role is done and he offers no further care.

Seahorse populations are thought to be endangered due to overfishing and habitat destruction. The seahorse is used in traditional Chinese herbology, and many sea-horses are caught each year and sold for this purpose.

So here are Carter’s questions.  How many Sea-horses are caught each year for use in Oriental medicines, and what does their Greek name mean?

Good Luck 🙂

Answer:

Congratulations to Dean (all the way over in Germany) for being the first one with the correct answer and thanks for the kind email ;-).  The seahorse’s generic name is derived from the Latin and means “Horse Caterpillar” and in Ancient Greek they were called “Hippocampus” which comes from hippos meaning “horse” and kampos meaning “sea monster”.

As for the number of Seahorse’s caught each year to support the Oriental medicines trade, it is estimated that as many as 20 million seahorses may be caught each year and sold for this purpose.  Here is more on these enchanting creatures:  Seahorse’s

Thanks for playing along 😉