page_title: Southern stingray
section_title: Foraging
hierarchical_section_title: Southern stingray / Behavior / Foraging
caption_attribution_description: English: A modern Deania sp.
context_page_description: The southern stingray is a whiptail stingray found in tropical and subtropical waters of the Western Atlantic Ocean from New Jersey to southern Brazil. It has a flat, diamond-shaped disc, with a mud brown, olive, and grey dorsal surface and white underbelly. The barb on its tail is serrated and covered in a venomous mucus, used for self-defense.
context_section_description: In one study, it was evident that when scientists revealed the contents of the stomach of one Hypanus americanus, they found evidence of a great variety of ingested prey (which represented a variety of phyla and families), such as small fishes, worms and crustaceans. As mentioned earlier in this article, the Hypanus americanus swim with a wave-like motion, thus making it easier for them to maneuver and help explain why their foraging area is so vast. They can be identified as opportunistic feeders and continuous foragers, since they exhibit continuous feeding of multiple organisms throughout the day (this helps to explain the stomach contents revealed in the previously mentioned study).
caption: Southern stingray lying on the sea bed
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