Stingray

The stingray inhabits the warmer tropical waters around the world generally in the slightly deeper waters rather than the shallows. When the weather begins to cool, the stingray will retreat further into the depths of the ocean.

The stingray is most well known for the stinger that is present on the end of tail of the stingray. The stingray uses the stinger on the end of it's long tail pierce through and stop it's prey before it can escape.

The stingray's stinger is razor-sharp, barbed or serrated and attached to the stingray's thin tail. This means the stingray can whip it's stinger to pretty much anywhere, extremely quickly as the long, thin tail of the stingray is extremely agile and very flexible.

The size of a sting really is dependent on what species of stingray it is. Some species of stingray in the deep ocean get up to 14ft long including the tail and these species of stingray naturally have a larger stinger. The smaller stingray species tend to have small stingers, so that the stinger is relevant to the size of the body of the stingray.

The stingray is a carnivorous animal, meaning that the stingray only feeds on other animals and does not eat plants. The stingray preys on a wide variety of species in the sea including crabs, molluscs, clams, oysters, snails and some species of fish.

The stingray has few natural predators in it's natural environment mainly due to the large size of the stingray. Stingrays are also able to use their flattened body shape to their advantage by resting on the sea floor and therefore able to hide from predators as well as keep an eye out for potential prey. The main predators of the stingrays are sharks, seals, sea lions and large species of carnivorous fish along with humans.

Stingrays breed during the winter and the female stingray gives birth to live young usually between 5 and 15 baby stingrays, known as a litter. The baby stingrays develop inside the mother stingray for around 9 months and feed off the remaining yolk in their eggs sacks. When this runs out, the baby stingrays are feed milk in the uterus of the female stingray. When the baby stingrays are born, they are able to swim about and begin hunting with their mother.

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