Mothers with the marine factor
Sea Life Bangkok, the aquarium at Siam Paragon in the very heart of Bangkok, celebrates the upcoming long Mother’s Day holiday by presenting four “Super Mom” species, namely the Sea turtle, the Gentoo penguin, the Small-clawed otter and the Giant Pacific octopus.
Although well recognised, these four “Super Mom” marine species are still little known for the extent of their motherly love and devotion. The mother sea turtle will travel more than 2,000 kilometres only to return to the beach where she herself hatched years before. In addition to the numerous obstacles she has to encounter, the mother sea turtle needs to wait until night to find the safest spot on the beach and start digging a hole about 50 centimetres deep before finally laying 50-350 eggs. After having laid the eggs, the mother sea turtle will cover up the hole as well as she can with all her remaining strength in order to protect her babies from the eyes of predators.
The mother small-crawled otter is the head of the family with all the members of the romp under her care. When there is a newborn, the mother otter will look after her baby in the nest until the little one is two months old and big enough to learn how to swim and search for his own food.
In the Gentoo penguin’s family, the devoted parents help each other out in taking care of their baby. The long nurturing process will start with the father Gentoo gathering pebbles to build the nest for the mother Gentoo to lay a couple of eggs. After the nest is built, both father and mother Gentoos will incubate the eggs and take turns to go out searching for food. When the baby Gentoo penguin has hatched, the parents will keep a close eye on their baby as a number of predators are never far away. Both father and mother Gentoos will look after their baby until it sheds its feathers and is old enough to hunt for its own food.
The Super Mom Giant Pacific Octopus, meanwhile, will search for a safe niche or cave to lay her 120,000-400,000 eggs on the solid surface inside. During the six months of brooding the eggs, she will sacrifice herself by not eating and continuously waft currents to create a constant supply of oxygen all over her eggs without forgetting to also brush away the kelps clinging to them.
A special promotion is offered from tomorrow (August 6) onwards. Mothers aged 65 and over, and/or any disabled persons showing their ID and/or disability ID card can purchase a pass at the special price of Bt790 (from normal price of Bt990). Children between three to 11 years old also pay Bt790.
The aquarium is open daily from 10am to 9pm. Call (02) 687 2000 or visit www.SeaLifeBangkok.com.
