Imagine you're about to be a proud new father,
but first, you have to give birth to 2,000 babies.
Sounds painful, right?
Well, if you're a male seahorse, that is part of the job.
Turns out, there's a lot of animal dads out there
who do all of the hard work.
The hardhead catfish takes parental sacrifice
to the extreme.
To protect the eggs, he'll hold them in his mouth.
And it's not just one or two eggs.
It could be as many as 65.
The eggs take up so much space that he can't eat
because he might swallow one.
So he'll fast for over two months while the eggs develop.
Believe it or not,
the male giant water bug takes on an even heavier load.
Females lay up to 100 eggs on the male's back.
He'll carry the eggs for the next two to three weeks
as they develop.
But during that time, the eggs and mucus glue his wings down
so that he can't even fly,
making him vulnerable to predators.
Plus, the eggs weigh him down so much he has to rely
on slower, easier prey like snails.
Or he just doesn't eat at all.
But it's worth it to ensure his future offspring are safe.
Luckily, for the water bug,
he can return to his regular life after the eggs hatch
because the babies fend for themselves.
That's not the case for the male rhea.
He doesn't just stick around to raise his chicks on his own,
he raises multiple families at once.
During breeding season, the male rhea will build a nest
to attract as many females as possible.
He'll form a group of about five to seven females
and mate with them that season.
The females lay their eggs in his nest and then skedaddle.
Like, for good,
leaving him to raise and defend all 30 or so chicks
until they're about six months old.
Talk about the challenges of being an only parent.
Last but certainly not least, is the male emperor penguin
who does a lot of the hard work early on.
Female penguins entrust their eggs to the males.
But since penguins don't have nests, the males have to play
a delicate balancing act.
They keep the egg warm atop their feet
and away from the frozen ground they stand on.
But they can't hunt or forage for food.
They have to stay put and protect that egg.
But the hard work doesn't even end there.
By the time the chicks hatch,
the fathers are starved from fasting for weeks on end
but the chicks need to be fed.
So, Dad manages to regurgitate some food
from his esophagus to feed the chick until Mom returns.
Delicious, thanks Dad.
Love it when you cook dinner.
Looks like there's a lot of animal dads who deserve an award
for Father of the Year.