why-animals-do-the-thing: katakulio:end0skeletal:This helpful stingray offered itself up as a te
why-animals-do-the-thing: katakulio: end0skeletal: This helpful stingray offered itself up as a tent for a diver who decided to have a lie down on the seabed at Grand Cayman. (x) @why-animals-do-the-thing Do you know what’s going on here? My educated guess is that it’s investigatory behaviour of some kind. I’d make an educated guess that that southern stingray has no idea the person isn’t just a weird rock. Here’s the thing: stingrays can’t see underneath their bodies. That’s why they’ve evolved specialized organs that let them sense the electricity released by small animals moving under the sand; bottom-feeding species have to hunt with their eyes looking the opposite direction of their mouths. Reading the NBC article that’s linked, it sounds like the diver was already near the seabed (maybe actually resting on it) before the ray decided to settle on top of him. It describes the ray as hovering for a moment over him before descending, which isn’t an uncommon behavior to see when a ray is scoping out the environment for threats before coming to rest. If this was investigative behavior, I would expect to see something more than just resting on top of the diver. The best explanation of stingray investigative behavior I’ve ever heard was “imagine a vacuum cleaner that looks curious.” They’ll try to bite at or put their mouth on things they’re interested in, and it frequently comes with a lot of back-and-forth motion as they use their sensitive undersides and the electricity-sensing ampullae of Lorenzini to learn more. Given that it’s implied this southern stingray just lowered itself onto the diver and stayed still, it’s not likely to be a curiosity-based behavior. (I feel like the story would be framed pretty differently for the internet if the ray had tried to nibble on him). However, with just these photos, an interpretation of the behavior isn’t likely to be accurate - I’d want to see a video for a better sense of it. It’s also worth noting that a lot of the stingrays around Grand Cayman are very habituated to people due to some of the tourist attracts that feed them year-round, so that could potentially be influencing the ray’s comfort level around the divers. -- source link