short-tail stingray
dasyatis brevicaudata latin

The short-tail stingray forages for food both during the day and at night.

The short-tail stingray is common and widely distributed in the temperate waters of the Southern Hemisphere.

Curious and unaggressive, the short-tail stingray may approach humans and can be trained to be hand-fed.

The short-tail stingray is not aggressive but is capable of inflicting a potentially lethal wound with its long, venomous sting.

Dasyatis brevicaudata (Short-tail stingray)

The diet of the short-tail stingray consists of invertebrates and bony fishes, including burrowing and midwater species.

Off New Zealand, both it and the short-tail stingray regularly fall prey to local killer whales (Orcinus orca).

Heavily built and characteristically smooth, the pectoral fin disc of the short-tail stingray has a rather angular, rhomboid shape and is slightly wider than long.

The short-tail stingray or smooth stingray (Dasyatis brevicaudata) is a common species of stingray in the family Dasyatidae.

Its natural predators include: Short-tail stingray, Diamond ray, Spotted ragged-tooth shark, Cape fur seal, cat shark and numerous species of fish and birds.

The short-tail stingray is usually slow-moving but can achieve sudden bursts of speed, flapping its pectoral fins with enough force to cavitate the water and create an audible "bang".

From 1986 to 1997, New Zealand reported an average annual catch of 15 tons for this species and the short-tail stingray combined, though this figure may underestimate the total fishery impact.

Throughout its range, the short-tail stingray is caught incidentally by various commercial fisheries using trawls, Danish and purse seines, longlines and set lines, and drag and set nets.

The longer tail, presence of thorns, and absence of white dots atop the disc differentiate this species from the short-tail stingray (D. brevicaudata), another giant stingray that shares its range.

The short-tail stingray is mainly bottom-dwelling in nature, inhabiting a variety of environments including brackish estuaries, sheltered bays and inlets, sandy flats, rocky reefs, and the outer continental shelf.

As it survives fishing activities well and remains common throughout its range, the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) has assessed the short-tail stingray as Least Concern.

The summer aggregations of the short-tail stingray at the Poor Knights Islands seem to at least partly serve a reproductive purpose, as both mating and birthing have been observed among the gathered rays.

In Southern Africa, as chokka squid are preyed on by short-tail stingray, the Cape fur seals that share the waters are hunted by the world's largest predatory fish: the great white shark.

The short-tail stingray may also be referred to as giant black ray, giant stingray, New Zealand short-tail stingaree, Schreiners ray, short-tailed stingaree, shorttail black stingray, and smooth short-tailed stingray.

Terri and her children were reportedly trekking in Cradle Mountain, Tasmania, when her husband Steve died on the morning of September 4, 2006 after sustaining chest and heart injuries from a short-tail stingray barb which pierced his heart.

Like other stingrays, the short-tail stingray is aplacental viviparous: once the developing embryos exhaust their yolk supply, they are provisioned with histotroph ("uterine milk", enriched with proteins, lipids and mucus) produced by the mother and delivered through specialized extensions of the uterine epithelium called "trophonemata".

At Hamelin Bay, Western Australia, many thorntail stingrays, short-tail stingrays, and Australian bull rays (Myliobatis australis) regularly gather to be hand-fed fish scraps; the number of visitors has steadily increased in recent years, and there is interest in developing the site as a permanent tourist attraction.

Short-tail stingray or smooth stingray (Dasyatis brevicaudata)

The short-tail stingray or smooth stingray (Dasyatis brevicaudata) is a common species of stingray in the family Dasyatidae.