Southern Stingray

Môi trường sống: Sand flats, lagoons, and seagrass beds; buries itself to the eyes between foraging bouts

Phạm vi phân bố: Western Atlantic from the mid-US coast through the Gulf of Mexico and Caribbean to southern Brazil

Hành vi: A diamond-shaped bottom forager that leaves feeding pits across every Caribbean sand flat, usually trailed by a jack or snapper hoping for leftovers. Ordinarily retiring — the famous boldness at Grand Cayman's Stingray City is learned behavior from decades of fishermen's scraps, now managed as a wildlife attraction.

Chế độ ăn: Worms, crustaceans, and small fish excavated from sand with jets of water and flapping wings

Kích thước: thường vào khoảng 1.0 m; ghi nhận đến độ sâu 1.5 m (disc width; large females dwarf males).

At interaction sites follow staff handling rules and keep feeding to guides; on ordinary dives, don't hover directly over a buried ray, don't dig them out, and give feeding animals space to work.

Near Threatened; inshore fishing and habitat loss press on it outside protected areas, while interaction-site populations are monitored for the effects of feeding and handling.