Baby Animals: The Top 10

[narrator] Growing up in the wild can be pretty hardcore.

Imagine learning to leap... ...roar, swim, or fly for the very first time.

You've got to get it right, because the faster you are, the stronger you are or even the better you can camouflage yourself, the greater your chances of surviving and thriving in the wilder ness, when you grow up that is!

But with all this feral rivalry going on, you've got to wonder - who really is Mother Nature's biggest or smallest or most dangerous untamed youngling of them all?

The answers will astound you, and we are counting them down from 10 to 1.

They are cute.

They are wild.

They are the cover girls and boys of the animal kingdom and they know it!

They are baby animals.

Relax, unwind and get ready to meet some baby animals that take life at a more leisurely pace.

From super-snoozers to lingering loiterers, these unhurried babies cleverly use the lazy life to their advantage, conserving their energy and evading their predators while they're at it.

These cruisy creatures are masters of meandering that move so slothfully, you'd almost think they were in slow motion!

For these baby animals, it's not a race.

This is what it's like living life in the slow lane.

The stunning treetops of the eucalyptus forests in eastern and south-eastern Australia - the perfect place for one of the slowest baby animals on the planet to kick back and take it easy.

Number 10 is the koala.

These iconic Australian animals actually spend most of their lives asleep.

And when you're a koala joey, you start life in your own cosy, comfy, purpose-built snooze sack!

Koalas aren't bears, they're marsupials, meaning koala babies hang out in Mum's pouch for around the first six months of their lives.

Joeys are born underdeveloped.

They're tiny, blind and hairless, only about the size of a jellybean.

Whether they're in the wild or orphaned and living in a reserve, these tiny joeys instinctively know the trick to survival is to drink milk.

As an endangered species, largely due to habitat loss, koala joeys born in animal sanctuaries like these ones are little beacons of hope for the survival of the species.

And though it might not be milk straight from Mum, this one sure is lapping up its milky meal.

Rest assured, there are plenty of cuddly, cosy alternatives to Mum's pouch available in this sanctuary.

In the wild, after about six months of slurping, snoozing and growing in the pouch, a joey will take its first peek at the world.

Koala joeys will then ride around on Mum's back until they're about a year old.

So why are koalas so snoozy?

You could say, koalas didn't choose the snooze life, the snooze life chose them.

It all has to do with what they eat.

On the upside, eucalyptus trees provide koalas not only with a home but also their primary food source.

They can chow down on up to a kilogram of leaves every day.

On the downside, eucalyptus leaves are toxic and have limited nutrients.

Living off a poisonous plant can come with its perks though - as there's not a lot of competition for food with other animal species.

A koala's digestive system uses specialised bacteria that break down the toxic oils in the leaves, converting what is left into nutrients.

This means that koalas don't wind up with a lot of energy from the food they eat.

Interestingly, koalas aren't actually born with this special bacteria in their bellies.

They acquire it from their mother in a very interesting way.

Joeys will wean and prepare for a life of eating toxic leaves on a diet of Mum's pap, directly from her anus.

Lapping up runny faeces could be compared to human babies being fed puree before going on to eat solid food.

It's just a tad more disgusting.

By the time it's one year old, a koala joey is fully weaned and ready to live on leaves.

It will head off and find its own home range, which will overlap with its mum's for most of the year that follows.

Then, when it's ready to breed sometime between the age of two and three years, the young adult will move further afield.

No matter what happens during their waking hours, these sleepy tree-dwellers spend the largest amount of their lives in a slow and snoozy state which nabs the koala the number 10 spot on our Slowest Countdown.

Time to chill out in the snowy islands of Japan where the most northern-dwelling, non-human primate in the world is lapping up a slow and luxurious life in Mother Nature's hot tub.

Say hello to Number 9 - the Japanese macaque, also known as the snow monkey.

Just don't say it too loud, because this baby is really in the zone.

Welcome to Spa de la Snow Monkey, the perfect steamy spot to relax, unwind and brave the sub-zero temperatures and intense snowfall of the Japanese winter.

Snow monkeys haven't always lounged in these natural hot springs - or onsens - that are heated by nearby volcanoes.

Apparently, it all started back in 1963 when a young female monkey hopped into a hot spring to retrieve some soy beans.

She enjoyed it so much that she stayed in for a while, and then other monkeys started to join her.

Initially, it was just mums and babies that took up the lounging life, but eventually the behaviour caught on with the rest of the troop and has since been passed down from generation to generation.

This little one is likely to wean at around six to eight months of age.

But for now, it looks like it's enjoying its milk warmed up while Mum gets her hair done.

It's all happening at Spa de la Snow Monkey today!

Grooming is one of their favourite activities.

It's a selfless behaviour that helps snow monkeys maintain their social bonds, as well as a parasite-free coat.

Usually, grooming stays in the family, often between mothers and daughters.

But, on the odd occasion, a snow monkey will approach a member of the wider troop to groom them.

They really do look relaxed when they're lounging and it's probably because they are.

Researchers have discovered lower levels of stress hormones in female snow monkeys that lounge the longest.

It's believed that the break from having to regulate their body temperature in the cold causes the monkeys to experience less stress and ironically up their chill-factor.

This troop don't spend their whole lives in the hot springs.

A monkey's got to eat.

During winter, food is scarce, often buried under layers of snow and ice.

Their winter menu includes leaves and bark and fish if they're lucky, plus fruit and vegetables provided by the monkey park.

So, they've got to eat as much as they can to keep their energy up during these gruelling colder months.

Luckily, they've got cheek pouches, a rather useful adaptation that allows Japanese macaques to save food for later.

During warmer months, the menu really expands to include over 213 plant species, as well as bird eggs and invertebrates.

Young snow monkeys love to play.

Some have even been observed making snowballs!

Researchers believe that their play actually has no survival purpose.

It's 100% just for fun!

As gentle animals that are rarely aggressive, these laid-back loungers and their babies really do look like they are loving their slow, sedate lives.

Time to push the boat out and go for a cruise across the world's oceans.

The great big blue is officially home to hundreds of thousands of marine creatures.

Scientists estimate that only about 9% of ocean species have been classified so far, meaning there are hundreds of thousands more species yet to be discovered.

Number 8 on our countdown is most definitely classified - it's kind of hard to miss.

It's the large and leisurely humpback whale.

With an average cruising speed of around seven kilometres an hour, life is relatively slow for these giant wanderers of the sea.

And weighing in at up to 1.5 tonnes and measuring up to five metres long at birth this is one big baby.

A mum and her calf can swim thousands of kilometres together, as part of a yearly migration from tropical to cooler waters, where their food is plentiful.

It's a long way to go for a feed but luckily, they've got some tunes prepared for the long, slow journey ahead.

(HUMPBACKS VOCALISING) Humpback whales are famous for their haunting sea songs, which can travel far and wide through the world's oceans.

These beautiful ballads, full of slow moans, whoops and other strange sounds can last up to 30 minutes, and are still yet to be fully understood by scientists.

(HUMPBACKS VOCALISING) It's likely these songs are part of a humpback whale's communication strategy, either to send others a message or find a potential mate.

But what we do know is that humpback calves whisper to their mums, using gentle grunts and squeaks that don't travel more than a hundred metres.

(HUMPBACKS VOCALISING) It's believed that one of the reasons calves do this is to help them go undetected by predators.

Humpback whales are mammals.

Their young drink milk in the first year of their life, and they will continue to grow slowly for 10 years before they reach adulthood.

When you're growing up to be larger than a school bus that sort of growth rate is understandable.

Time to come up for some air.

Humpback whales can't breathe underwater and must surface to get their oxygen.

The first thing you're likely to see when they surface is a powerful exhalation from their pair of blowholes.

Having their blowholes up top means they don't have to waste energy sticking their whole heads out of the water to breathe.

The blow efficiently expels up to 90% of the volume of their lungs in under a second, and can reach dazzling heights of up to four metres.

While an adult humpback whale will come up for air every 7 to 15 minutes on average, a calf needs more regular pit stops, surfacing every three to five minutes.

Now we've taken a breath, it's time to make a splash.

Using their powerful tail fins, or flukes, humpbacks will launch themselves out of the water in spectacular breaching displays.

But why do they do it?

Scientists are yet to understand exactly why humpback whales breach, but there are several theories.

It's thought that breaching could be a way for them to clean their skin, act as another mode of communication, or maybe it's just for fun.

And check out this mini-breach.

Nailed it!

Baby got skills!

When humpback whales finally arrive at their migration destination, here's what makes their long journey worthwhile - krill, as well as small fish and plankton, and lots of them.

It's time for a fishy feast, humpback-style.

Humpback whales use a bubble net.

Working together in a group, or on their own, humpback whales will blow bubbles in the water out of their blowholes around their prey.

As the bubbles spiral upwards, they force the krill, plankton or small fish into dense balls before the humpbacks launch out of the water, mouths gaping open, to strain their well-earned meal using their bristly baleen.

Once they've had their fill, they'll return back to warmer waters to mate and give birth to their young starting their spectacular, but slow, life journey all over again.

When your swimming style is more of a saunter, these gentle giants sure are some of the cruisiest babies on the planet.

It's in brackish waters, wetlands, swamps, lakes and rivers that you'll find our next docile dawdler.

Native to Australia, but introduced to places across the world, such as New Zealand, North America and Europe, number 7 is the graceful glider that is the black swan.

And by the looks of this nest, this swan has cygnets on the way.

Egg-cellent.

On average, swans can lay 5 to 10 eggs in a clutch and they're generally the biggest eggs of any bird species that can fly.

The female, also known as a pen, will incubate the eggs while the male, called a cob, will stand guard close by.

Their nests are an untidy bundle of reeds and grasses near the water, or even on the water.

When cygnets hatch, they don't look much like their parents at all.

They're fluffy, grey and tiny.

This one is having a good preen.

A natural instinct from birth, preening helps to waterproof their feathers before they take the plunge for their first swim.

When they do hit the water, they've got to keep their wits about them as cats, foxes, dogs and large birds of prey will happily snap one up if the opportunity presents itself.

Fortunately, Mum and Dad are never too far away.

Black swans tend to be monogamous and usually mate for life, raising their young together.

You could say they're just one big flappy family, enjoying the slow life with a plodding paddle speed of around 2.5 kilometres per hour.

They are capable of going much faster when they're in flight though, up to 80 kilometres per hour.

These cygnets are born with the ability to feed themselves, but they will need to be led to the food.

While Mum and Dad plunge their beaks into the water to feed on aquatic plants and algae, cygnets will gobble up floating vegetation, as well any insects they can find as their growing bodies need a lot more protein than their parents.

Black swan cygnets will stay in the care of their parents, growing and gliding together for about nine months, at which point they'll be ready to go it alone.

When they do eventually mature and find a prospective life partner of their own, it's time for a dance.

They'll stretch out their long necks, sometimes dipping their heads under the water across each other.

They are really shaking their tail feathers.

This water dance can sometimes go on for up to 20 minutes, at which point, all going well, they'll mate.

And hopefully, a few weeks later, the next generation of fluffy flappers will hatch and be ready to take the swamp by storm in their own kind of graceful and gradual way, of course.

OK, this segment is about to end.

So this must be the part where the swan song plays.

(SWAN VOCALISING) There we go.

Let's head back to the ocean where a couple of big floaters are drifting on by.

Number 6 on our Slowest Baby Animal Countdown are sea cows.

More specifically, the close cousins from the Sirenia animal order, the dugong and the manatee.

With a maximum drift-speed of around 8 to 10 kilometres per hour, these unhurried mammals have a lot of similarities.

So, what's the easiest way to tell dugongs and manatees apart?

Hot tip - check out the tail.

Dugongs have fluke-shaped tails, a bit like a whale or dolphin, while manatees have more rounded tails.

Glad we've had this little chat.

To the baby sea cows.

A manatee cow and calf off for a slow morning drift together.

Sea cow calves are about 10 times the weight of an average human baby at birth.

They are born underwater and can swim on their own after about an hour.

Though they spend their lives down here, like the humpback whale, sea cows have to come up for air, and they only breathe through their nostrils.

Manatees and dugongs typically hang out in relatively shallow waters.

This way, they're close to the seagrass they love to graze on, as well as the oxygen they need to survive.

This baby in care is showing how calves suck their flippers when they're ready for a feed, a bit like a kid sucking their thumb.

OK, the cute factor just went through the roof.

Oh, the hu-manatee!

While it might look like this calf is trying to get a sniff of Mum's flipper-pit, it's actually having a suckle.

Sea cows feed their calves milk via mammary glands under each flipper.

Now the flipper-pit stop is over, let's get back to drifting.

Fun fact - manatees can't turn their heads, but they are pretty good at rolling and swimming upside down.

Calves will usually stay with their mums for around two years until they're fully weaned.

During this time, young manatees will learn migration paths, as well as which locations to hit up for the best seagrass.

It's only when you see a sea cow in action grazing that you truly begin to appreciate what prolific eaters they are.

And how fish, like these golden trevally, can benefit as a result.

Like an industrial-strength vacuum cleaner, this dugong is hoovering up all the aquatic plants in its path.

Dugongs spend more than half their lives eating, and can churn through over 30 kilograms of seagrass each day.

Though their brain only makes up a measly 0.1% of their 400 kilo average bodyweight, dugongs will always remember a good feed, returning time and time again to the same feeding spots after spending time away.

So, why are sea cows so slow?

As mammals living underwater, they've got to work hard to keep warm.

It's a very delicate balance.

Any fast movements can disrupt their body temperature, so a nice slow and steady pace maintains their optimum body heat while they're on the move.

Sea cows live in various tropical and subtropical waters around the world and, depending on where they live, predators like crocodiles, sharks or alligators might try to prey on their young.

Not even their cuteness will save them at this age.

But when this baby is fully grown, it won't have natural predators big enough to threaten it, so no quick getaway will be required.

And that's something you've got to be pretty happy about as a sea cow calf.

Hey, it does kind of look like it's smiling.

OK, cute factor is going back up through the roof again.

Argh!

We can't even deal!

The rainforests of South-East Asia.

It's a place with incredible diversity.

Over time, animal species that live here have adapted to its unique environment.

And one of those animals is number 5 on our countdown.

Time to get up close and personal with the slow loris.

This bug-eyed baby and its mother make their way through life in a very measured and moderate fashion at speeds of just under two kilometres per hour.

And they're just so cute.

FYI - while they look like they wouldn't hurt a fly, you might not want to judge this book by its cover.

You're looking at the world's only venomous primate.

Oh, but it's still just so cute!

All nine species of slow lorises are either vulnerable, endangered, or critically endangered largely due to losing their rainforest habitat to development and farming, plus illegal pet and wildlife trade.

Babies born in animal sanctuaries like this one, are part of a global species survival plan to help slow down their rapid decline in the wild.

Entering the world with those big eyes wide open, slow loris babies are dependent on their mums for food and protection.

They'll cling on to their mother's tummy around the clock as she slowly and deliberately climbs through trees.

Unless of course, she's out on the hunt for food, in which case babies are parked in a safe place until Mum returns.

Before you judge, slow loris mums are not careless.

Before they leave, they thoughtfully cover their parked baby with a mix of saliva and toxic venom to keep it safe, a bit like predator repellent.

In the wild, there are the likes of snakes, birds of prey and orangutans to deal with but fortunately, here at the sanctuary, this baby can rest easy.

As night falls out in the forest, this pair of wild lorises have to hunt up food for themselves.

Looks like it's Loris One versus Loris Two in a game of That's My Dinner, Not Yours.

These two are playing to win, folks.

Albeit slowly.

Slow lorises love feeding on vegetation, fruit, nectar, tree sap, insects, sometimes even small animals.

And to help them with their nocturnal foraging, those big eyes are a clever adaptation that boosts light absorption, giving the slow loris powerful night vision.

When slow lorises climb, they use a unique form of quadrupedal movement, utilising all four of their limbs to move very deliberately without making any noise or changing their speed.

This, paired with the fact they are remarkably good at staying completely still for a long time, makes their movement difficult for any predators to detect.

It's official.

If you're a baby animal and you've got the actual word 'slow' in your name, you know it's got to be true.

And can you believe they only get slower from here, folks.

Imagine if you were born a perfect miniature of your parents, wearing the same clothes as them, with the exact same face as one of them.

That's the life of our next Cruisy Baby Animal.

Number 4 - the freshwater turtle.

Turtle hatchlings look like tiny aquatic toys, teeny weeny heads little coin-sized shells and nano-sized legs trying very hard to do what big legs do.

No surprise, on land these littlies are slow.

Their crawling speed is estimated to be about 1.3 kilometres per hour.

A turtle hatchling leaves its egg determined to do one thing - stay alive.

With an unspoken understanding that life is perilous and threat is near, in the form of predators and environmental influences, these tiny reptiles are pre-programmed for life - swimming, eating, and avoiding getting your head stepped on by a family member.

In a body this size, it's hard to believe that all the capacity for survival is already on board.

But these baby saw-shell turtles, like all turtle hatchlings, aren't just cute, they are 100% able to function independently from day one.

And that includes a turtle's very unusual way of breathing.

A typical human breathes through their mouth and nose, right?

You may have heard that some freshwater turtles can breathe through their butts.

And that's kind of true.

But - see what we did there?

A turtle doesn't have a butt, per se.

It has a cloaca which is found where you would expect to find its bottom.

When they are under the water hibernating, some turtles can also do something called cloacal respiration.

These turtles pump water in through their cloaca and respire anaerobically, which basically means they can breathe without oxygen via their butt region.

It's not the most efficient way for an animal to stay alive, so it's lucky that these turtles are also capable of breathing in a similar fashion to humans.

Like these tiny saw-shells that are politely using their nostrils to breathe.

Turtles are reptiles, which means they are cold- blooded.

They need a source of warmth outside of their own bodies to stay at peak functioning, which is why you often see turtles basking on sunny rocks or floating at the surface of the water.

When the weather gets cold, turtles will brumate, which is the reptile version of hibernation - basically, living a very quiet, slow underwater life until the warmer months.

These saw-shell hatchlings are actually ecological warriors in training.

Saw-shell turtles are endemic to Australia, and Australia has a huge problem with an introduced amphibian species called the cane toad.

Cane toads are poisonous and kill many native species that try to eat them.

Saw-shells are one of the few animals that can safely consume cane toads, so everybody wins.

Except maybe the cane toads.

So, these baby turtles aren't just placid plodders, they are basically tiny butt-breathing heroes.

Now, let's head to the rainforests of Central and South America - some of the largest and most biodiverse ecosystems on earth.

Millions of plant and animal species call this place home, one of which is the world's slowest mammal.

Number 3 is the three-toed sloth.

This cuddly baby animal and its mum are moving so slowly, it looks like they could be in slow motion.

If you think climbing through the treetops at a maximum speed of around 0.4 kilometres per hour is slow, we've got news for you.

They're about half that speed when on the ground.

And they can spend between 15 to 20 hours a day asleep.

Yep, it's official.

This little sloth baby is hanging loose for life.

Three-toed sloths give birth to their young whilst hanging in the trees.

They spend nearly all of their lives in the canopy of the rainforest.

Born with their sharp claws and a biological need to cling on to things, sloth babies are well adapted for life in the treetops from birth.

For about 6 to 12 months, they'll hold on tight to Mum.

Babies are drip-fed milk by their mothers.

Even three-toed sloth milk flow is slow.

Baby three-toed sloths are born with a full set of teeth, getting a taste for solid food from as early as one week of age.

If you're a herbivore in a rainforest full of toxic plants, you've got to learn the difference between what will fill you versus what will kill you.

Sloth babies do this by copying their mother, sometimes stealing some of her snacks.

News flash!

Three-toed sloths are surprisingly good swimmers.

This is not fake news.

Swimming sloths are a thing.

If they drop out of their tree into a river underneath, they have the ability to slowly paddle themselves out using their long, outstretched arms.

When they get back onto land though, they are extremely clumsy and have to use their claws to pull themselves along the ground.

They are much happier back up a tree and out of sight.

So why are sloths so slothful?

Well, a couple of reasons.

One, to sneak through the treetops without being detected by predators, like jaguars and eagles.

And two, they have a super slow metabolism.

This helps them break down the range of plants they eat into nutrients and energy, but it does mean that their bodies are not capable of fast movements.

When a juvenile three-toed sloth is ready to go it alone, its mother will take off and find a new home range at which point our young one will spend the rest of its life rolling solo, only coming into contact with other sloths of the three-toed variety to reproduce.

It's a solitary, slothful life for the world's slowest mammal.

Oooh, that's the spot.

We are officially eight cruisy creatures down on our Slowest Countdown.

With only two to go, we are almost at the finish line, but which one will be crowned "The Slowest Baby Animal"?

Up next is something super-sluggish that lives in a variety of habitats all over the planet - in trees, soil, sand, even water.

You can live just about anywhere when you carry your home on your back.

Number 2 is, what else, but the humble snail.

Chances are you might have seen one of these sliding on by, at around 48 metres per hour but have you ever seen snail babies?

Oh - you are in for a treat.

It all begins as a clump of eggs are carefully laid by a parent snail.

Many snails are simultaneous hermaphrodites - meaning they can be a mother and a father for the purposes of reproduction.

Snail eggs differ from species to species but are usually round, jelly-like and either pink or white.

Depending on the species, there can be anywhere from 5 to 600 eggs and they can be laid underground, behind rocks, on the side of a plant, or in water.

When snail eggs hatch, they enter their larval stage complete with super-cute mini shells.

Many snails will stay close to their birth spot after hatching and may even be offered protection from a nearby adult.

And look what we have here, a couple of tiny freeloaders hitching a ride.

Oh, yeah.

They look like they're having a great slime up there.

These mini-shells will grow with them as they mature with many species reaching adulthood when they shell-abrate their first or second birthday.

If snails did have celebrations, we're pretty sure the food table would really be the life of the party.

What they eat depends largely on the species, but land snails typically love eating plant material.

The rottener, the better.

Yeah, we'll pass on the snail snacks, thanks.

A snail's shell is generally its best defence against predators as this qualified snail handler is helping to demonstrate.

Like a tortoise, a snail will pull its whole body into its shell when it senses a threat.

Only, it seems to take a little longer.

Once they're inside, this full body armour is a snail's only hope to protect it from birds, beetles, hedgehogs and humans to name just a few.

They'll seal up the door to their shell with a special fold of skin and only then is their disappearing act complete.

Let's take a look under the hood at the engine of one of the slowest creatures on the planet.

When it comes to getting around, these slippery sliders, born with only a single foot muscle, use it to produce a ripple effect that propels them forward.

These ripples are called pedal waves.

Their super-slimy mucous trail helps to make their travel path smoother, whilst also protecting snails from parasites and pathogens.

Their snail trails come with the added bonus of providing some safety, smelling and tasting disgusting to other creatures.

You've got to use all the defensive weapons you can when you're this slow.

When you grow up to be the very definition of sluggish, you sure are one super-slow and slimy baby.

We are diving back into the ocean to catch a glimpse of our Number 1 baby animal that would, ironically, come dead last in a race against all the Cruisy Creatures we've met in this epic episode of slowness.

Number 1 is - very slow drumroll please... (DRUMROLL) ...the slow and steadfast seahorse.

There are over 45 species of seahorse found on the planet, drifting sedately through tropical, subtropical and temperate coastal waters with the slowest among them reaching a maximum speed of 1.5 metres per hour.

And when it comes to animal babies, these are super-slow small-fry.

No, seriously.

The name for a baby seahorse is a fry.

You're looking at a seahorse paternity ward, complete with a few doting dads-to-be.

After a seahorse mum lays her eggs in a brood pouch on the dad's abdomen, he will fertilise them and then carry their developing babies.

The pregnancy can last anywhere between 10 to 45 days, depending on the species.

Seahorses have strong tails, similar to those of monkeys, and use them to grasp onto objects to hold themselves in place.

When the time comes for the babies to be born, Dad will pump those bad boys and girls out into the ocean, by pulsing water through his pouch.

One male seahorse can give birth to over a thousand fry at a time.

In the wild, fry start floating adrift instantly, making them very susceptible to predators in their first few days of life.

These little ones don't have to worry about that in this animal sanctuary though.

Fry will often hang out together in small groups, holding onto objects in the water to anchor themselves with their tails.

Even though they live in water, seahorses aren't known to be very good swimmers.

It's not for lack of trying though, frantically beating their dorsal fin up to 70 times per second.

To add to the element of difficulty, their pectoral fins - that are responsible for helping them steer and keep stable - are puny.

Not surprisingly, they're easily exhausted and prone to being swept away in strong currents.

When it comes to food, how does a creature that has no official stomach to store food eat?

The answer is as much as it can almost all the time.

Seahorses love to ambush and suck up their tiny fishy prey, such as krill and fish larvae, using their long straw-like snouts.

Because their food passes so quickly through their digestive tube, they're capable of eating up to 3,000 tiny shrimp a day.

We know by now that when you're a slow baby animal, you've got to compensate for that slowness with a strong survival game plan.

One of the tricks in a seahorse's repertoire is the ability to change colour to blend in with its surroundings, camouflage.

Their hues can change with just the twitch of a muscle, providing safe haven from mortal enemies.

This stunning skill can also be used as a way to impress a potential mate.

You could say they are true romantics at heart, with some species of seahorse mating for life and they love a good slow dance.

DJ, hit the music.

Their courtship dance is a thing of beauty with the male and female swimming side by side, sometimes spinning around and intertwining tails in a rollicking romp that they'll repeat daily, which strengthens their bond.

It won't be long before these two welcome to the world the next generation of super-slow movers and groovers.

With a lifespan of anywhere between one and nine years, these baby animals are well and truly destined for life in the slow lane.