Creature Day

Good morning all we are moving out of Africa and on to Oceania for those who don’t know Oceania is a region of the South Pacific Ocean that comprises multiple islands. The United Nations divides the region into four sub-regions: Australia and New Zealand (including also the Christmas Islands, Keeling Islands, Heard Island and McDonald Islands, and Norfolk Island), Melanesia, Micronesia, and Polynesia.

This week’s creature is a Leafy Sea-dragon , dripping with “leaves” this sea-dragon blends perfectly with the seaweed and kelp forests off southern Australia where it lives. They are closely related to seahorses and drifts with the currents is search of microscopic prey such as sea lice.

It is graced with a thin, tubular snout and small leaf-sharped fins, it’s usually browny-yellow in colour and 35cm long.

If you see a bright yellow tail on a male it is a sign it is going to mate, like seahorses the males are in charge of childbearing. Unlike seahorses which carry their young in a pouch on the stomach male sea-dragons nurture theirs on the underside of their tail.