How Do Stingrays Eat? - How It Works

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How do stingrays eat?

by How It Works Team · 09/05/2015

Stingrays, like other members of the ray family, are bottom feeders.

They are related to sharks but they don’t have sharp teeth. Depending on the species, they may either have two hard plates for crushing shellfish or just sucking mouthparts.

Stingrays mainly eat molluscs and crustaceans, but because their eyes are right on the top of their head, they can’t see their prey, so they use their sense of smell and the electric field sense common to all sharks.

The venomous sting at the end of the tail isn’t used to catch food – it is purely for self-defence.

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