Spotted eagle ray

점박이매가오리

The spotted eagle ray has a dark back scattered with white spots, a duck-like snout and a long whip tail. It glides by flapping its wing-like fins and crushes shellfish with plate-like teeth. Its wingspan reaches about 3 m.

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At a glance

Class: Fish
Lives in: Waters near the Cocos (Keeling) Islands
Diet: Meat eater (carnivore)
Habitat: coral reefs, coasts

Quick answers

Where does the Spotted eagle ray live?

It lives in coral reefs, coasts of the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian oceans. On the globe you can find it near Waters near the Cocos (Keeling) Islands.

What does the Spotted eagle ray eat?

Its diet: meat eater (carnivore).

The spotted eagle ray is a graceful ray with a dark, flat body covered in white spots or rings, a white belly and a snout shaped like a duck's bill. As traditionally defined, it lives in tropical seas around the world. Newer studies restrict the true species to the Atlantic, including the Caribbean and Gulf of Mexico, and name the Indo-Pacific and East Pacific populations as separate species.

Its flat disc is deep blue or black above, and its tail is longer than that of other rays, with two to six venomous, barbed spines behind the pelvic fins. The largest have a wingspan of up to 3 metres and weigh as much as 230 kilograms. Spotted eagle rays are most often seen alone, but sometimes swim in groups. They are listed as near threatened by the IUCN. The name Aetobatus comes from Greek words for 'eagle' and 'ray'.

Crushing shells

The rays eat mostly clams and other bivalves, crabs, whelks, queen conchs, worms, shrimp, octopuses and a few small fish. Their jaws are strengthened with calcified struts and have chevron-shaped teeth that crush hard shells. They are the only rays that dig with their snouts, which they do to find food in the sand, and they end up in a cloud of sand with more spurting from their gills.

Leaps and dips

Spotted eagle rays are often seen leaping clear of the water. One kind of jump goes straight up and comes down on the same line, and another goes out at a 45-degree angle, often repeated at high speed. They also dip, diving and coming back up as many as five times in a row. At least twice, rays have jumped into boats, and in one incident in the Florida Keys a woman was killed. They prefer water of 24 to 27 degrees Celsius.

Live young

The female carries the eggs inside her body, where they hatch and feed on a yolk sac until she gives birth to live young. After a gestation of about a year, she has up to four pups, each 17 to 35 centimetres across. Rays mature at 4 to 6 years old. Genetic evidence suggests a female can sometimes produce young without a male, a process called parthenogenesis. Many sharks hunt them, and the rays are fished mostly in Southeast Asia and Africa. They are protected in the Great Barrier Reef.