I hope everyone enjoyed the first weekend of October and is feeling rejuvenated for the new week and new possibilities that lie ahead. One of our readers, Agapelife, has just come back from a trip to SeaWorld where she saw numerous sea animals. Among those animals were the amazing Stingray which were being petted by the many visitors. Today we are going to learn a bit more about the Stingray as well as answer the million dollar question. How come you don’t get stung when you pet a Stingray?
Stingrays are usually found in the shallow coastal areas of the ocean where they will spend the majority of their time partially buried in the sand just lying there doing nothing. This makes a lot of sense since most people just go to the beach to laze around. This inactivity works really well for the Stingray since their colouration usually reflects the ocean floor. This means they can just hang out without having to be bothered with those pesky predators.
The face of the Stingray is unique since the eyes are located on their dorsal side, the side facing up, while their nostrils, mouth and gill slits are located on the ventral side also called the underbelly. Since their eyes are separated from their mouth and nostrils it is believed that they don’t rely on eyesight for hunting. Instead they use a much more shocking method to find their yummy prey species. They utilize their electrical sensors, called ampullae of Lorenzini, located all around their mouth which senses the electrical charges of their potential prey. This is why Stingrays amaze me so much. They actually use the energy of their prey to locate and devour them on a regular basis. I find it so much more interesting than just using the same old boring eyesight that most other animals use.
So now we are going to circle back and answer the question as to why you don’t get stung when petting a Stingray at SeaWorld? As you may know the Stingray’s tail is usually equipped with a barb that can be serrated, sharp and often contain venom. This doesn’t sound like the type of animal you would want to be petting does it? Luckily, Stingray’s are fairly docile and will only use the stinger if they need to defend themselves from predators such as sharks. Most stings actually come from someone accidentally stepping on them while walking in the water. For the most part they are not deadly and hardly anyone has died from a Stingray (I will get to the most famous Stingray death in a second). If the wild Stingray’s are not aggressive then you could just imagine how relaxed a SeaWorld Stingray is since they are living on a full belly of food everyday and are use to human encounters. Of course zoos and other establishments don’t want to take the risk of a lawsuit or one of the faithful, paying customers getting hurt so they will either trim the barb or remove it completely. This is why you can pet a Stingray without the fear of being stung. So the most famous Stingray death has to be Steve Irwin (man I miss that guy) who was killed by a Bull Stingray out in the wild. It was a defense reaction from the Stingray who became frightened of the cameraman in front of him. Normally the sting wouldn’t kill you but unfortunately Steve Irwin was hit in the heart with a 10″ stinger. If you jab your heart with anything that is 10″ long and you are probably not going to live. It was just an unfortunate one in a million type of accident.
Well that was a long winded post but why not start the week off with some fascinating Stingray information. Now get outside and enjoy this beautiful October day!
