SALMON help their offspring by making the ultimate sacrifice on their spawning grounds, according to a new study by Scottish ecologists.
According to scientists at Glasgow University, spawning salmon that die after migrating home are actually doing their young a favour.
By making the ultimate sacrifice, they allow their decaying bodies to fertilise the burn and create an environment which favours the growth of the young fish and maintains their genetic diversity.
Spawning salmon migrate hundreds of miles across the ocean back to the burns in which they were born, but then often die just after spawning.