The Virginia Living Museum actively participates in AZA’s Species Survival Plan (SSP) program that coordinates with other AZA – accredited facilities across the country to manage and conserve wild populations of the lined seahorse (Hippocampus erectus). Through captive breeding and exchange with other institutions, we can ensure a genetically diverse captive population of seahorses without collecting animals from the wild. The VLM currently houses several successful breeding pairs of lined seahorses that regularly produce healthy offspring. These particular seahorses were born and bred here at the VLM in early winter of 2013 and have provided us with enough captive bred seahorses not only to display for many years to come, but also with a surplus of animals to send to other SSP facilities around the country.
