Tiger Stingray Interactions

Knowledge of a species unique patterns of conspecific interaction serve as a significant baseline for the further appreciation and characterization of a species specific behavioral patterns. As such, it is not surprising that social interaction amongst conspecific members of one’s species tends to be a well-studied phenomenon in a large percentage of animal kingdom members. However, members of the stingray suborder have largely been excluded from this research, an unfortunate oversight due to the increasingly concerning decline in worldwide stingray population health and numbers. Through the characterization and differentiation of the conspecific interactions of two representative stingray species, the freshwater tiger stingray, Potamotrygon tigrina, and the marine Atlantic stingray, Dasyatis sabina, we sought to fill in this gap in the scientific database.
Additionally, examination of the frequency of conspecific interactions revealed the Atlantic stingray to exhibit a significantly higher number of interactions, as compared to the tiger stingray during two of the three observation periods. Considering how important the knowledge of conspecific interactions are in generating a greater understanding of a species unique behavioral patterns, these findings can serve as both as an important baseline for future stingray studies, as well as a conservation tool to fight the declining stingray