Creature Feature – Oceanic Manta Ray
This week is the letter ‘O’, and today’s featured creature is the Oceanic Reef Manta Ray. Manta Rays are the largest rays in the world with “Manta” meaning blanket or cloak in Spanish. For decades, scientists thought there was just one species of manta ray. In 2008, researchers discovered that there are actually two distinct species: the reef manta ray, and the giant oceanic manta ray.
Taxonomy
Scientific Name: Mobula birostris
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Order: Myliobatiformes
Family: Mobulidae
Genus: Mobula
Oceanic Manta Ray Fact File
Size: Individuals can have a wingspan of up to 7m (23ft) and weigh up to 2000kg
Distribution: This species is widely distributed throughout the tropical and sub-tropical regions, overlapping with reef mantas across a large proportion of this range
Diet: Filtering zooplankton through their gill plates, a mantas diet consists of copepods, mysid shrimp, crab larva, mollusc larva and fish eggs
Behaviour: When travelling in deep water, the giant oceanic manta ray swims steadily in a straight line, while further inshore it usually basks or swims idly around. Mantas may travel alone, or in groups of up to 50. They sometimes associate with other species, such as fish, sea birds and marine mammals
IUCN Status: Endangered. Like many ocean animals, they are declining in numbers. Key threats include: entanglement in fishing apparatus, demand for their gill plates and climate change. Climate change affects the abundance of zooplankton that they prey upon
