Salmon Mating and Reproduction

     Salmon swim to the place they were born, and can encounter many obstacles along the way, such as dams, waterfalls and bears. Once a female finds a place, she fans her tail against the pebbles on the riverbed, making a kind of nest for her eggs.  While she is doing this, some males will gather near her, and she permits one to stay with her, and they release egg and sperm into the nest. Then the female buries the eggs and guards the place until she dies.

     Before the egg and sperm are formed in the salmon, the DNA in the diploid cells undergo segregation, also called meiosis, which is when the chromosomes separate into halves. The diploid cells now have half the number of chromosomes a regular cell has. When the egg and sperm are developed and the salmon release them, a sperm penetrates the egg, and recombination happens, which is when the chromosomes recombine to form the first set of chromosomes in what will be the new salmon.

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