The bat ray (''Myliobatis californica'')Gill, T.N. (1865). "Note on the family of myliobatoids, and on a new species of ''Aetobatis''". ''Ann. Lyc. Nat. Hist. N. Y.'' 8, 135–138. is an

eagle ray The eagle rays are a group of cartilaginous fishes in the family Myliobatidae, consisting mostly of large species living in the open ocean rather than on the sea bottom. Eagle rays feed on mollusks and crustaceans, crushing their shells with the ...

found in muddy or sandy sloughs,

estuaries An estuary is a partially enclosed coastal body of brackish water with one or more rivers or streams flowing into it, and with a free connection to the open sea. Estuaries form a transition zone between river environments and maritime environmen ...

and bays,

kelp Kelps are large brown algae seaweeds that make up the order Laminariales. There are about 30 different genera. Despite its appearance, kelp is not a plant - it is a heterokont, a completely unrelated group of organisms. Kelp grows in "underwa ...

beds and rocky-bottomed shoreline in the eastern

Pacific Ocean The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean (or, depending on definition, to Antarctica) in the south, and is bounded by the contin ...

, between the

Oregon Oregon () is a state in the Pacific Northwest region of the Western United States. The Columbia River delineates much of Oregon's northern boundary with Washington, while the Snake River delineates much of its eastern boundary with Idaho. T ...

coast and the

Gulf of California The Gulf of California ( es, Golfo de California), also known as the Sea of Cortés (''Mar de Cortés'') or Sea of Cortez, or less commonly as the Vermilion Sea (''Mar Bermejo''), is a marginal sea of the Pacific Ocean that separates the Baja C ...

. It is also found in the area around the

Galápagos Islands The Galápagos Islands (Spanish: , , ) are an archipelago of volcanic islands. They are distributed on each side of the equator in the Pacific Ocean, surrounding the centre of the Western Hemisphere, and are part of the Republic of Ecuador ...

.Florida Museum of Natural History
Bat Ray Biological Profile
Retrieved 2006-01-16. The largest specimens can grow to a wingspan of and a mass of .Monterey Bay Aquarium Online Field Guide
Bat Ray
Retrieved 2012-06-14. They more typically range from . The size of the bat ray is dependent on many factors, such as habitat alterations, different oceanographic and environmental conditions. Bat rays have one to three venomous barbed spines at the base of its tail. Some bat rays are solitary while others form schools numbering in the thousands. The sexual maturity size of the female ''Myliobatis california'' is often greater than the male one. Bat rays are euryhaline, i.e. they are able to live in environments with a wide range of salinities. Predators of the bat ray include

California sea lion The California sea lion (''Zalophus californianus'') is a coastal eared seal native to western North America. It is one of six species of sea lions. Its natural habitat ranges from southeast Alaska to central Mexico, including the Gulf of C ...

great white shark The great white shark (''Carcharodon carcharias''), also known as the white shark, white pointer, or simply great white, is a species of large Lamniformes, mackerel shark which can be found in the coastal surface waters of all the major ocean ...

s and

broadnose sevengill shark The broadnose sevengill shark (''Notorynchus cepedianus'') is the only extant member of the genus ''Notorynchus'', in the family Hexanchidae. It is recognizable because of its seven gill slits, while most shark species have five gill slits, with ...

s. To keep themselves safe from predators, bat rays camoflauge in the sand.

Diet

Bat rays feed on

mollusk Mollusca is the second-largest phylum of invertebrate animals after the Arthropoda, the members of which are known as molluscs or mollusks (). Around 85,000 extant species of molluscs are recognized. The number of fossil species is e ...

crustacean Crustaceans (Crustacea, ) form a large, diverse arthropod taxon which includes such animals as decapods, seed shrimp, branchiopods, fish lice, krill, remipedes, isopods, barnacles, copepods, amphipods and mantis shrimp. The crustacean group can ...

s and small fish on the seabed, using their winglike

pectoral fin Fins are distinctive anatomical features composed of bony spines or rays protruding from the body of a fish. They are covered with skin and joined together either in a webbed fashion, as seen in most bony fish, or similar to a flipper, as ...

s to move sand and expose prey animals. They may also use their snout to dig trenches up to 20 cm deep to expose buried prey, such as clams. Bat ray teeth are flat and pavementlike, forming tightly-packed rows that are used for crushing and grinding prey—the crushed shells are ejected and the flesh consumed. As with all

elasmobranch Elasmobranchii () is a subclass of Chondrichthyes or cartilaginous fish, including sharks (superorder Selachii), rays, skates, and sawfish (superorder Batoidea). Members of this subclass are characterised by having five to seven pairs of g ...

s, these teeth fall out and are replaced continuously.

Relationship with humans

While the bat ray, like other stingrays, has a venomous spine in its tail (near the base), it is not considered dangerous and uses the spine only when attacked or frightened. Humans can avoid these spines by shuffling their feet when traversing shallow sand. Currently, the bat ray is fished commercially in

Mexico Mexico (Spanish: México), officially the United Mexican States, is a country in the southern portion of North America. It is bordered to the north by the United States; to the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; to the southeast by Guatema ...

but not the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...

. Prehistorically, native tribes on the California coast (probably Ohlone), especially in the San Francisco Bay area, fished bat rays in large numbers, presumably for food.Gobalet, Kenneth W., Peter D. Schulz, Thomas A. Wake and Nelson Siefkin (2004). "Archaeological perspectives on native American fisheries of California, with emphasis on steelhead and salmon". ''Transactions of the American Fisheries Society'' 133 (4), 801–833. Commercial growers have long believed bat rays (which inhabit the same estuarine areas favored for the industry) prey on oysters and trapped them in large numbers. In fact, crabs (which are prey of bat rays) are principally responsible for oyster loss. Bat rays are not considered endangered or threatened. Bat rays are popular in marine parks, and visitors are often allowed to touch or stroke the ray, usually on the wing.

Relationship with other animals

The holes that bat rays leave behind after digging with their snouts allow smaller fish to eat the organisms hidden in the sand that they otherwise would not be able to retrieve themselves. These holes can be as large as 4 meters long and 20 centimeters deep.

Life cycle

Bat ray reproduction is

ovoviviparous Ovoviviparity, ovovivipary, ovivipary, or aplacental viviparity is a term used as a "bridging" form of reproduction between egg-laying oviparous and live-bearing viviparous reproduction. Ovoviviparous animals possess embryos that develop insi ...

. They mate annually, in the spring or summer, and have a gestation period of nine to twelve months. Litter sizes range from two to ten — pups emerge tail first with their pectoral fins wrapped around the body, and the venomous spine is flexible and covered in a sheath which sloughs off within hours of birth. Bat rays live up to 23 years.MarineBio.org
Bat Ray
Retrieved 2006-01-16 Bat rays copulate while swimming with synchronized wingbeats—the male under the female. The male inserts a

clasper In biology, a clasper is a male anatomical structure found in some groups of animals, used in mating. Male cartilaginous fish have claspers formed from the posterior portion of their pelvic fin which serve to channel semen into the female's c ...

into the female's cloaca, channeling semen into the orifice to fertilize her eggs.

Gallery

File:Bat-ray-NOAA-Tony-Chess.jpg, Bat ray adopting a feeding posture. File:Bat Ray in kelp forest, San Clemente Island, Channel Islands, California.jpg, Bat ray in kelp forest, San Clemente Island. File:Myliobatis californica pt lobos.jpg, Bat ray off Pt. Lobos. File:Myliobatus californica monterey.jpg, Bat ray at the Monterey Bay Aquarium.

References

External links

* {{Taxonbar, from=Q1722247 Myliobatis Ovoviviparous fish Western North American coastal fauna Fauna of California Fish of the Gulf of California Fish of the Western United States Galápagos Islands coastal fauna Fish described in 1865