In the last week we have welcomed two stunning new Southern stingrays to the Oceanarium family! The two male southern stingrays have arrived to us on loan from The National Marine Aquarium in Plymouth to become part of a ‘captive breeding programme.`
The Southern stingrays have taken up residence in our Key West display and have settled in fantastically! They are a wonderful addition to the diverse and colourful collection of species already here.
As part of their introduction to the Oceanarium the stingrays have begun a feeding regime whereby they are ‘target trained` meaning they are encouraged to approach and hold position over a target (specifically a high contrast black and white board), once they have completed this they are provided with a piece of food. There are many advantages of feeding the stingrays in this manner and they have learnt to do so impressively quickly. This method can help reduce competition both intraspecific (whereby members of the same species compete for the same food) and interspecific (whereby different species compete for the same food) and can additionally be used as a tool to aid reducing stress during transport, veterinary procedures and allows staff to strictly monitor their diet.
You can see our new stingrays being fed at Key West at approximately 3:30pm everyday (currently not a scheduled feed until they settle in).