00:04It's breakfast time here at the South Carolina Aquarium and I've been put in
00:08charge of feeding 17 hungry little mouths. Armed with a bowl full of shrimp we're
00:16headed to the stingray tank where the resident Atlantic and southern stingrays
00:19are patiently waiting for their meals to be served. So these rays enjoy their meal
00:25kebab style. All you have to do is grab a shrimp, skewer it, lower it into the
00:31water and the rays will take care of the rest. As the stingrays come closer for a
00:37meal we have the opportunity to get a better look at their features. Their
00:41mouths are located on the underside of their bodies and so are their gill
00:45slits and nostrils but their eyes sit on top of their head which makes it easy to
00:49keep a lookout for predators and prey while they rest on the ocean floor.
00:58It's obvious that these beautiful creatures have an ideal body plan for
01:02life underwater and they certainly know their way around this tank especially
01:06when it comes to feeding time. But did you know that stingrays are actually members
01:10of a group known as cartilaginous fish? Instead their skeletons aren't made of
01:15bone they're made of cartilage which is the same stuff that comprises the tips of
01:19our noses which allows extra flexibility in those large wing like fins. It's
01:24actually quite mesmerizing to watch them fly through the water with effortless
01:28grace. And check out that tail it's almost twice as long as its body and if
01:33you look carefully you can see the defense mechanism that gives the stingray its name.
01:38The barbs on their tails are covered in a venomous mucus and can in fact sting their
01:43predators if they're being attacked. And it's because of this barb that these
01:47magnificent creatures are often misunderstood but with like any animal
01:51whether under human care or in the wild if you keep a safe distance and treat
01:55them with respect we can live alongside them harmoniously.
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