No photo available
Pink whipray
Pateobatis fai
Recently reclassified: formerly Himantura fai; moved to Pateobatis in 2016.
- English
- Pink whipray
- Scientific
- Pateobatis fai
- Dhivehi
- No recorded Dhivehi name
- Group
- Rays
- Family
- Dasyatidae (stingrays)
- Maximum size
- Disc width up to about 1.5-1.8 m
- Depth and habitat
- Sandy lagoons and reef edges, 0 to about 200 m
- IUCN status
- VU · VulnerableVulnerable (VU), assessed 2023
Description
A large, plain stingray with a rounded, pinkish-grey to beige disc and an extremely long, thin whip-like tail. It rests on sand in lagoons and around reefs and feeds on crustaceans, worms and small fish buried in the sediment. Groups are often habituated to people near fish markets and feeding sites.
In the Maldives
Pink whiprays are among the large pale stingrays that gather where fish are cleaned at jetties on local islands and at well-known feeding spots. Protected with all rays since 2014.
Sources
- fishbase.se /summary/Pateobatis-fai.html
- saveourseas.com /update/all-ray-species-now-protected-in-the-maldives/
- commons.wikimedia.org /wiki/File:Pink_whipray_(Pateobatis_fai)_Moorea.jpg
Dhivehi name source: No species-specific Dhivehi name found. 'Madi' is the general word for ray.