Bat Rays

What Are Bat Rays?

Bat Rays are a type of stingray species! They usually have a brown or black back with a white belly. Bat Rays also have a long tail with a stinger behind it's dorsal fin at the base of it's tail.The Bat Ray has a distinctive protruding head and bat-like “wings” for propulsion through the water. Female Bat Rays will grow up to 6 ft across, and weigh up to 200 lbs! While the Male Rays will grow up to 3 feet and weight around 37 lbs. Bat rays are commonly found in the Eastern Pacific, from Oregon to Mexico

Habitat

The Bat Ray lives in the intertidal to max depth of 180 meters (590 ft); with nurseries in shallow waters of bays and sloughs. They prefer flat sandy seafloors with rocks. A Bat Ray will usually burrow its snout and flaps its wings to uncover mollusks, crustaceans and small fish prey on the sandy seafloor; other fish take advantage of this behavior to find “leftovers” in the pit that is formed. Its predators include sea lions, white sharks, broadnose sevengill sharks and humans through sportfishing or incidental catch in commercial fisheries.

Life History

The Bat Ray commonly lives up to 23 years solitarily or in schools; females aggregate during mating in the spring/summer. Before mating, the male swims behind the female to detect chemical signals that indicate her reproductive status; during mating, the male swims underneath the female. The Bat Rays reproduce via live birth. Litter size of two to ten pups, with a gestation period of nine to twelve months.

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