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Adult seahorses have been found in the stomachs of Tuna, Flatheads, Anglerfish, Snappers and Fairy Penguins, and will be attacked by some crabs.
Three things protect wild seahorses from predation - they are well camouflaged, blending imperceptibly into their environment, they hitch to seagrass etc so their motion doesn’t attract much attention, and they are bony fishes (“Teleosts”) with hard armoured skin and spines so they don’t make a great meal for small fish.
However, if a seahorse is attacked, it has little chance of survival; they have no other defence mechanisms and will hold on tight to their holdfasts instead of trying to escape, and their hard skin poses no problems to fish large enough to eat them whole.
The most dangerous part of a seahorse’s life by far is the start; seahorses are born as tiny versions of the adults and spend their time swimming amongst plankton where they are prey to fish, birds etc. Because of this vulnerability a tiny proportion of seahorses make it to adulthood.
Other than this, one of the major threats to seahorses is human beings, either catching and drying them for medicinal purposes or curios, as a result of shrimp fishing as bycatches, in the wild caught aquarium trade, or destruction of their natural habitats. Related Topics:
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