Male seahorses like mates

Male seahorses have specific requirements when choosing their partners: increasing chances of successful reproduction. By carefully selecting and often favoring big females, they have more opportunities to have larger eggs, and older children, according to Beat Mattle and Tony Wilson Zoological Museum at the University of Zurich, Switzerland.

Seahorses have a very special type of reproduction: the male is pregnant. Male seahorses provide after-child care, but despite this 'investment', scientists still think they have a normal sexual role, meaning that children choose you. love and males compete for their children's attention. The size of the eggs, eggs and offspring increased in parallel with the size of the female seahorses, suggesting that males can gain real-world benefits by 'making friends' with large females. .

Male seahorses choose their mate based on body size, according to a new study. (Photo: iStockphoto / Anastasia Tsoupa)

Mattle and Wilson studied the mating behavior of pelvic seahorses (Hippocampus abdominalis), focusing on the importance of body size in the process of mate selection. A total of 10 females and 16 males were fully sexually mature, all from Tasmania's breeding facility, who participated in the experiment. Individuals, both male and female, are 'introduced' to potential partners of different sizes. The tendency to choose a partner is evaluated according to the time period used to flirt with 'partners'.

Mattle and Wilson found large differences in flirtatious behavior between male and female seahorses, with malignant males and females that did not discriminate. Male seahorses have a high level of activity and show a preference for larger sex partners. on the contrary, females have much lower levels of activity and do not show their preference.

The authors conclude: 'The large-scale preference of male partners is evidence of the sexual choice of female body size factors in the H. abdominalis community. wild, consistent with the original predictions'.

The findings are published in Springer's Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology magazine.