Apr. 28th, 2015 at 4:37 PM

A Pufferfish's Garden
For years divers off the coast of Japan encountered these enormous, 2 metre diameter 'mystery circles' on the sandy sea floor. Recently we found out who was making them.
This huge underwater crop-circle is the mating display of the male Torquigener pufferfish. The small (12 cm) fish takes 7-9 days to meticulously prepare one of these elaborate gardens. It seems that the sole purpose of the garden is to attract a mate, and provide a good site to lay her eggs.
If their garden catches a mate's eye, the male will hang around for another 6 days to care for the eggs, before moving on to a new location, and starting a new garden.
This small pufferfish produces one of the most elaborate displays known in nature.
- OB
Image Credit: http://goo.gl/PCahFI
Original Article: http://goo.gl/Nh85tD
A Video (Attenborough!): http://goo.gl/9TmPI4
(from the Earth Story FB page)

Comments
Your icon is very cute, btw
BTW
That wasn't too easy to find, since telling FB I wanted Earth Story returned a lot of pages containing the words "Earth" and "story". And though I did get to https://www.facebook.com/TheEarthStory, I still haven't found this story. Can you provide a direct link?
Re: BTW
Here's the story, let me know if the link works:
https://www.facebook.com/TheEarthStory/photos/pb.352857924775258.-2207520000.1430272539./859959607398418/?type=3&theater