Tulsa Zoo Promotes Notable Seahorse Breeding Program

It may sound strange here in the middle of Oklahoma, but the Tulsa Zoo has one of the most successful seahorse breeding programs in the country.

Katie Close is a marine biologist who’s been at the Tulsa Zoo for two years specifically because of the seahorse program. There are Tulsa bred seahorses at zoos and aquariums all over.

Katie says she was attracted to seahorse because of how weird they are.

“They are fish, but there is so much about them that is so different.”

There are some of the strange differences, for example they are fish that don’t swim well because they don’t they have a prehensile tail like many monkeys.

They use the tail to hang on to things and to each other to compensate for not swimming well. Seahorses have no stomach so they must be fed regularly. The strangest of all, the males give birth to the baby seahorses, maybe 200 at a time, and they can do that as often as every couple of weeks.