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Eagle Manta Ray

11/ JUL/ 2019

The scientific name of the species is Myliobatidae, originally considered to have a circumglobal distribution in tropical oceans around the world, recent studies have restricted the true eagle manta ray (Autobotes narinari) to the Atlantic Ocean based on genetic and morphological evidence .

The Eagle Manta Rays have flat disc-shaped bodies, dark blue or black with white spots on the top with a white underside, and the flat snouts are distinctive, similar to the bill of a duck. Their tails are longer than those of other rays and can have 2 to 6 poisonous spines, just behind the pelvic fins. The front half of the chest disc is long and similar to a wing, it has five small gills in its lower part.

The mature stingray eagle can measure up to 5 meters long; the largest have a wingspan of up to 3 meters and a mass of 230 kilograms.

It feeds mainly on bivalves, crabs, whelks, benthic infauna also feeds on molluscs, crustaceans, especially malacostracan, also eats hermit crabs, shrimp, octopus and some small fish.

The jagged structure of the stingray eagle has the ability to crush the hard shells of mollusks. The jaws of these stingrays have developed calcified struts to help them pass through the shells of the mollusks, by holding the jaws and preventing the dents of the hard prey.

The stingray eagle also makes jumps, submerges and then goes back up quickly, maybe up to five consecutive times. There are two main types of jump: in one, the ray is propelled vertically out of the water, to which it returns along the same line; the other is when the beam jumps at a 45-degree angle, often repeated several times at high speeds.

When they are in shallow water or outside their normal bathing areas, the stingray eagle are usually seen alone, but they also congregate in schools. One way to travel is called loose aggregation, which is when three to sixteen manta rays swim in a loose group, with occasional interactions between them. A school commonly consists of six or more rays swimming in the same direction at exactly the same speed, another kind of school is the Tetra fish.

The eggs are retained in the female and incubated internally, feeding on a yolk sac until birth. The eagle manta rays are born alive, after a gestation period of one year, the mother line will give birth to a maximum of four offspring. When the shoots are born for the first time, their discs measure from 17 to 35 centimeters wide. And these mature after 4 to 6 years.