This is a cownose ray showing off his nose

Today I want to write about a special rays that has a very funny nose, the cownose ray

Here are five interesting facts about them:

1. These cool rays grow to about 90 cm across.  The males are slightly larger than the females.
2. Cownose rays feed on crabs, fish, lobsters and molluscs that they find on the seafloor.  They suck their food into their mouth and crush it with their powerful plate-like teeth.
3. They have a stinger on their tail, although they aren’t very toxic and it’s like being stung by a bee.
4. Like many other sharks and rays, cownose rays actually hatch their eggs inside their bodies and give birth to live babies.  Most of the time they give birth to one baby every year.
5. Cownose rays are found in the western Atlantic Ocean from the north-east of the United States down to southern Brazil.  Even though they can be found in groups of thousands of rays at a time, they are considered near threatened due to over-fishing.

I hope that you found these facts interesting and learned something new.

Are there any other interesting facts that you would like to share about cownose rays?

Similar species:

Giant Manta Ray