Rare video shows male seahorse giving birth in nature

Seahorses are different from most animals when reproducing.

Most notably, the males are the ones who carry the developing embryos and give birth while the females are simply responsible for laying eggs into a pouch on their partner's abdomen.

Meanwhile, the gestation period for White's seahorses is only three weeks long, but as many as 250 babies can be released during the delivery.

As a rare video of a wild birth shows, the tiny newborns can be seen emerging from the father's abdomen before getting swept away by the current.

Despite the high numbers of seahorses that are born at one time, conservationists remain concerned about the population which faces risks from fishing activities.

Check out some amazing photos taken by NOAA's Ocean Explorer: