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Spotted Eagle Rays

1/1/2014

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Spotted Eagle Rays from Caribbean Reef Life on Vimeo.

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Eagle Rays  have their mouths under their bodies for digging into the sand, where they find their food, such as molluscs and other invertebrates. They sense prey by using electroreceptors similar to those of sharks. They are also fast enough to catch and eat smaller fish, and have even been seen to jump clear out of the water, as they hunt near the surface.
Their skeletons are made of cartilage, except for two bony plates in their mouths for crushing their food.
 


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Eagle Rays look very different from below and above. This helps them to move about without being noticed by their main predators, the sharks. The white belly makes them hard to spot from below, looking up toward the light. The pattern of spots on their backs breaks up their outline when seen from above.
They can sometimes be found swimming in groups of two or more as they move between favorite feeding grounds.

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    Mickey Charteris

    Is a Canadian-born South African living in Honduras, who no longer knows where his accent is from. He has been diving all over the world, but has chosen Roatan as his home because of it's incredible underwater biodiversity. He has spent many thousands of hours underwater, and he is still finding something new on every dive.

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  • Home
  • Galleries
    • Portraits from the Reef
    • Macro Favorites
    • Reef Behavior Gallery
    • Fishes Gallery
    • Invertebrates Gallery
    • Reefscapes Gallery
    • Blackwater Dive Gallery
  • Book Samples
    • Covers & Indexes
    • Marine Plants
    • Sponges
    • Corals
    • Invertebrates
    • Fishes
  • eBooks
  • More Info
    • QUIZZES
    • PUZZLES
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    • BLOG
    • About the Author
    • Contact
    • Reader Reviews
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  • Buy Now