Southern stingray

American stingrays ( Dasyatis americana)

The American stingrays ( Dasyatis americana), also known as Southern Stingray is a Stechrochenart and lives in the western Atlantic north of the coast of New Jersey to southern Brazil, the Caribbean and the northern Gulf of Mexico.

Features

Dasyatis americana is more than two meters long, but is usually at 90 centimeters. It has a diamond-shaped pectoral fin disc is a maximum of 1.20 meters wide and only slightly rounded at the sides and snout. The top shows no pattern and is usually olive-brown, less often almost black, with gray pups. The underside is white, with gray or brown border. Along the ridge, attracts a number pointed warts. On the tail he usually wears two poisonous sting.

Way of life

The Ray lives near the coast on sandy bottom and seagrass as well as in lagoons and reefs at depths of one to 25 meters. American stingrays live singly, in pairs or in groups. During the day, they are often covered by a thin layer of sand, inactive around.

They feed on small bony fishes, crustaceans and molluscs, which they actively hunt or dig up from the seabed. His sting used the American stingrays only for defense. He is ovoviviparous with litters of three to five pups that are about 20 inches long at birth.

Compared with divers the animals are less shy. In the Cayman Islands United States stingrays were fed and habituated to people. This as a " Stingray City " famous square is a popular destination of diving tourism.