This wonderful seacreature is known all over the world under different names as a southern stingray, kit, stingaree, stingray and whip stingray. In japanese it is amerika-aka-ei , chuchu rok in Papiamento, ignelivatoz in turkish, ogoncza amerykanska in polish, , pijlstaartrog in deutch, Raia-cravadora in portuguese, raya verde for the spanish, ruskokeihäsrausku for the finnish, stechrochen in germany, for the swedish it is stingrocka, trigono is italian , in Serbia it is volina , and for the french it is the american pastenague or just the pastenague

They enjoy warm waters along the shores from New Jersey to Brasil, Their color is grey brownish on the back but their belly is pure white, they are quite flat and can be 1,50 m long.

They are moving with such grace flying in an incredible ballet in the middle of the ocean, lightly touching the sandy bottom with their wings and to this ballet only the music seems to be missing. Then they disappear leaving behind them just a few empty shells they had for feast!

This sublime stingray is related to the shark and its only arm is located at the end of his long tail where its sting can become a dreadful arm. In Polynesia the stings are often used as a knife... Its worst predateor is the hammerhead shark.

Flat on the sandy bottom they look for food as crabs, shrimps, shells and worms. Their mouths is on their belly and as soon as they find something they suck it up totally and with their strong jaws crash it and spit out the rest of the shell.

 

Stingrays have reef fishes as the blue head wrasse, parrot fishes and hogg fishes to assure their cleaning station as they feed on the colony of parasitic species living onto their skin . A large number of fishes enjoys the stingrays gourmet sandy researches and often follow them having in their digging work, a great opportunity to find micro organismes to eat. Nothing is left behind.

Stingrays live in group and are often seen lonely but the second one is never far behind. They are not dangerous except if they are harmed or agressed.