Southern stingray

How it lives

This ray lives on sandy bottoms and seagrass near reefs, mangroves and estuaries. In the wild it mostly hunts at night and rests by day, often buried in sand. It is usually alone or in pairs, but can gather in groups. Females give birth to a small litter of live pups, often 3 or 4.

Where it goes

It is a stay at home ray, and long distance migration is not known. Around Cape Eleuthera, Bahamas, over a third of 200 marked rays were found again, and females kept small home ranges. In St Thomas, US Virgin Islands, young rays stayed in the same bays for 256 days on average.

We only draw a journey on the map when scientists have tracked it or clearly documented it. For this animal we have not found one yet.

Populations

Found in the western Atlantic, from the United States through the Caribbean and Gulf of Mexico to Brazil. At Stingray City Sandbar in Grand Cayman, where rays have been fed by tourists for decades, at least 164 rays were counted in 2002 to 2003, over 80% female. The count fell to 57 in 2012, then rose to about 90. These rays do not show normal wild behaviour.