Thursday, April 25, 2013

How long are stingrays pregnant?

Stingrays typically breed during the early fall or winter and only have only one litter per year. Most litters contain 2–6 young stingrays; the size of the mother is directly correlated to the number of young she is able to carry. Stingrays are ovoviviparous; first the young grow inside an egg while inside their mother. The yolk provides the nourishment they need, and when this is depleted, they begin feeding off their mother's milk.
The gestation period of stingrays is not set; research has shown some pregnancies that last for 125 days and others that last for 226 days. The mean length of gestation is 175 days. This equates to about 5.5 months.
Baby stingrays are born with the ability to swim, and their mother immediately begins hunting with them.
https://animaldiversity.org/accounts/Dasyatis_americana/


Stingrays are a group of carnivorous fish related to skates and sharks that commonly live in shallow coastal tropical and subtropical waters. They weigh up to 790 pounds and have a mean lifespan of about 15 to 25 years when living in the wild. They have flattened bodies that have eyes on the topside and mouths on the underside, so it is thought that their eyes do not play a part in food hunting activities. Instead, they make use of electrical sensors near their mouths that sense the electrical charges of prey. There are over 200 species of stingrays.
Stingrays are fertilized internally through sexual intercourse. Their gestation period varies from 3 to 12 months among wild populations and 9 to 12 months among captive populations. However, some warm water species can have shorter gestation periods of up to 2 weeks. The common stingray (Dasyatis pastinaca) has a gestation period of about 4 months. Stingrays are ovoviviparous, meaning that fertilized eggs remain inside the mother’s body until they are hatched. The embryo is therefore fed by the yolk of the egg rather than the mother’s body.

No comments:

Post a Comment

Summarize the major research findings of "Toward an experimental ecology of human development."

Based on findings of prior research, the author, Bronfenbrenner proposes that methods for natural observation research have been applied in ...