Southern Stingray

These rays eat animals that live on the ocean floor, like shellfish, lobsters, crabs, and fish. They have special sensors called electroreceptors on their snouts that help them find food. To uncover prey, they move the sediment with their flexible "wings" (fins) or use their noses to dig in the mud or sand. Their teeth are positioned in flat plates, perfect for breaking hard shells. After eating, they spit out the shells and only swallow the soft parts of the animals.

At the Zoo, southern stingrays eat a variety of fish.

The southern stingray is most plentiful near Florida and the Bahamas, but can be found along the eastern coast of North and South America from New Jersey through the Gulf Coast to French Guiana.

The southern stingray inhabits sandflats near seagrasses and coral reefs in shallow coastal waters and estuaries.

Natural predators include sharks and other large fishes.

The biggest threat for southern stingrays is becoming bycatch (or being unintentionally caught) by commercial fishing operations. Humans also impact them negatively by degrading their natural habitat due to development.

These diamond-shaped rays are olive-brown to greenish grey on top and creamy white underneath. This coloring helps them blend in with their surroundings. Southern stingrays use their pectoral fins to stir up the sandy ocean floor to bury themselves to hide from predators or prey. Like sharks, their skin is covered in tiny, tooth-like structures called "placoid scales." These scales point towards their tails, which help reduce drag as they swim.

Unlike fish, they don't have a swim bladder or an oil-filled liver to keep them buoyant, meaning that if they stop swimming, they will start to sink. Their flat bodies and wide fins allow them to glide smoothly through the water and rest on the ocean floor, which helps them save energy.

The tail of a stingray can be around twice as long as its body and has one or two barbs near the base. These barbs are serrated, covered in venomous mucus, and mainly used for protection. A stingray often loses its spine when it injures another creature. Loss of a barb usually results in growing a replacement within a short period.

ATTENTION: Similar to how we cut our fingernails, the rays at the Columbus Zoo and Aquarium have their spines trimmed regularly, making them safe to touch.

Rays can detect the electrical fields of other animals, which helps them find their food hidden in the sand. They can sense small changes in water pressure made by prey like mussels and clams.

Stingrays breathe through openings called "spiracles" located behind their eyes, and their gills are located on their flat underside. Water enters through the spiracles and exits through the gills, leaving their mouths free for eating.

Typically, southern stingrays give birth once a year, with breeding occurring in summer to early fall. Rays are ovoviviparous, meaning they produce eggs that develop and hatch within the mother's body. They have an attached yolk sac providing nutrition, gradually diminishing over several months after birth. Two to seven are born resembling miniature versions of their parents and can swim immediately.

Southern stingrays are equipped with receptor organs, called “ampullae of Lorenzini”, that can detect the electrical patterns created by other animals. This allows them to find prey and locate other rays around them.

Southern stingrays have symbiotic relationships with cleaner fish, like wrasses, that clean parasites from them and eat waste left behind from their feeding. Unlike the cownose ray, the southern stingray is not social and is usually found alone or in pairs, rarely in large groups. They spend much of their time buried in the sandy seafloor with only their eyes and spiracles (breathing openings behind their eyes) showing. At night, they slowly graze along the seashore.