Why do stingrays swim in circles

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Perhaps the mantas need to feel outside of the zone of people before they display regular behaviors. Aerial footage captured a unique view of reef manta rays feeding together off the coast of Oahu, Hawaii.

The video narration provides a brief explanation for the swimming activity. Manta rays have to swim constantly to drive water through the gill filters. The leading manta is in the best position to feed, and the leading position is rotated among the manta rays in the circle.

These are two versions of the abstract bowls that reflect the graceful swimming of the manta ray. This is one of the first studies to estimate these parameters across the entire size range of an elasmobranch species.

Silva found that SMR increased with increasing temperature more so in juveniles than in adults, and did not significantly vary between sexes. In adult individuals a plateauing of SMR with increasing temperature was observed. While Q 10 did not significantly vary between sexes, juvenile and adult round stingrays exhibited significant differences in thermal sensitivity; juveniles displayed a higher Q 10 than was estimated for adults when accounting for the interacting effects of temperature and body mass.

The overall thermal sensitivity of round stingrays is relatively higher than previously reported values for other elasmobranchs. In adult round stingrays, the combined results of a plateauing SMR with increased temperature and relatively lower Q 10 is likely indicative of a broader range of thermal optima for larger individuals. The broader thermal optima in adult round stingrays is consistent with the seasonal changes in water temperature experienced in their environment.

For juveniles, the higher SMR and Q 10 indicates that juvenile round stingrays are more sensitive to shifts in temperature and exhibit a narrower range of thermal optima unlike adult round stingrays. Thus, it is likely that smaller juveniles would display a preference for cooler waters that maximizes food intake, assimilation, and growth against energetic cost. Given their high thermal sensitivity, juvenile round stingrays are predicted to be most impacted by increases in ocean temperatures.

Because sex was not a significant factor in predicting differences in thermal sensitivity and SMR of round stingrays, this indicates that the seasonal sexual segregation of mature females of the species in southern California is likely the result of a trade-off between mating opportunity and metabolic costs.

Lyons et al. Results showed that juveniles did not show differences in accumulation between sexes. Juvenile males in particular showed a significant decrease in contaminant concentration as they increased in size until maturity.

This pattern of bioaccumulation is likely due to juveniles growing at a faster rate than their rate of contaminant intake. Additionally, differences in diet and habitat use between the two life stages could further explain differences in contaminant concentration. In a follow up study by Lyons et al. It was found that liver concentrations of mercury dramatically increased after maturity and mature male round stingrays had significantly higher concentrations of mercury than juveniles. Differences in concentration are likely due to shifts in energetic costs as mature round stingrays partition more energy towards reproduction and have less energy to direct towards detoxification processes.

CYP1A is a useful biomarker of exposure that can be used to demonstrate biochemical responses to certain classes of organic contaminants. The activation of this protein is often measured in terms of ethoxyresorufin-O-deethylase EROD activity. The lack of a difference in EROD activity in mainland and Catalina island females despite differences in contaminant concentration suggests an estrogenic downregulating effect in female round stingrays.

Contaminant profiles varied between adult and juvenile age classes for each sex indicating that contaminant profiles can be used to examine habitat use. Mature females in particular sexually segregate from males after mating and aggregate in calm, estuarine habitats which are subject to a high input of urban runoff following a storm which could explain observed differences in the proportion of contaminant groups tested. Differences in contaminant concentration were also observed in the Catalina island population of round stingrays as females segregated in an area that had low tidal flushing and was subject to greater human activity.

Overall though, environmental exposure is significantly reduced at Santa Catalina Island compared to the mainland. Mainland populations of round stingrays exhibit low proportions of DDTs indicating that round stingrays do not utilize areas near the Palos Verdes shelf where a large source of DDT is still present in the sediment from human activity. To further determine if chronic contaminant exposure produces significant negative physiological impacts on round stingrays, Sawyna et al.

Results showed that exposed rays experienced higher immune cell proliferation and significantly higher rates of phagocytosis in multiple tissues, both biomarkers of immune impairment. This study provides some of the first evidence of immunostimulation correlated with organochlorine contaminants in rays. California State University Long Beach. Shark Lab. Who are the Stingrays?

How to Avoid Being Stung by a Stingray Many stingrays bury themselves in the sand to remain hidden from potential predators while they rest or digest their food. Most stingray injuries are reported during the afternoon. If you are stung by a stingray tell a lifeguard right away! Like what you see? Keep scrolling for more stingray research! Conception, CA to Panama where they live in bays, estuaries, and sandy coastal beaches at depths of m.

Surfside does not receive any input of heated seawater effluent. Calm, shallow water creates preferential habitat for round stingrays. However, the largest stingrays captured in this study were female, circled in red.

After which each ray was measured, weighed and marked with an ID tag for later recapture. The receiver will passively listen for unique signals emitted from tagged stingrays that swim near the device. This was water visibility on a very good day! Most round stingrays were detected at Seal Beach for two weeks before moving on to other areas outside of the receiver array Vaudo and Lowe Ultrasonograms of females with multiple embryos at varying stages of development.