Manta rays, commonly known as manta rays, are oviparous animals that usually produce only one child per litter.
Manta rays are actually a collective name for 11 species of fish in 2 genera under the manta ray family. Due to their migratory habits, they can be seen in tropical and temperate sea areas. In China's waters, the more common are the Japanese manta ray and the double-snout manta ray, etc., whose liver is rich in fat and can be refined fish oil.
People who see the manta ray for the first time will be surprised by its huge and eerie figure, in fact, the English name "manta" of the manta ray is derived from the Spanish language, meaning blanket, very graphic. Manta rays have a large, flat body, and their "wings" swimming posture in the sea is very similar to that of a bat in slow motion, hence the name manta ray.
Despite its eccentric appearance and widely different from common fish, manta rays are a very old "traditional" fish, a giant animal that has been "spreading its wings" in the ocean as early as the Jurassic period – and its size has barely changed in more than 100 million years.
The largest of these manta rays is the foremous manta ray in the Atlantic Ocean, with a "wingspan" of about 7 meters, the largest can exceed 8 meters, and weighs 3 to 5 tons. The smallest is the Oceania thornless manta ray, which usually does not exceed 60 cm in width.
The large manta ray is powerful enough to crash a small boat. However, despite being dubbed the "devil", manta rays do not actively attack humans. It may be that as a large fish, its intelligence is high, so mischievous they like to do all kinds of pranks against humans: they may deliberately hide under the boat, gently tapping the bottom of the boat with their wings to make a noise; or pull up the iron anchor of the boat, drag them around with their bodies, and so on.
In addition, manta rays often jump out of the water after accelerating underwater, which may be related to predator pursuit or body surface parasites. There have been hundreds of manta rays leaping out of the water at the same time, which is extremely spectacular.
Although, like many stingrays (such as stingrays), it has a slender, spine-like tail, the manta ray's tail is not poisonous, but only produces some weak current.
Interestingly, manta rays are oviparous fish, and the eggs will be produced after hatching in the female, so their litter yield is extremely low, usually only one child per litter. For the large manta ray, the small fish is 1 meter long and weighs 20 kilograms at birth – many people who don't know it will think it is a big adult fish. Due to low litter yields, female manta rays live with small fish for a long time and care for them – quite different from those fish that lay thousands of eggs at a time.
The gills of the manta ray can be made into "puffed gills", although there is no scientific research, but many Asians believe that its medicinal value is very high. This has led to the repeated and indiscriminate killing of the adorable manta rays, which has made them all endangered, near-threatened or vulnerable animals. Since 2013, WildAid has launched a manta ray conservation project to call on the public to stop eating puffed gills.