Are All Stingrays Really Harmful Like The One That Killed Steve Irwin?

The stingrays are a group of cartilaginous fishes and belong to the family of sharks. These creatures have barbed stinger on their tails, hence the name Stingray. They are commonly found in the regions of subtropical and coastal tropical marine waters. A stingray uses its barbed stinger mainly for self-defense purposes and the tail can measure up to a length of 35cms. Some species of stingray have one or more of these barbed tails while some don't have a barb at all. Stingray is a shallow water creature and prefers to stay deep in the water. If the climate is too cold, it may go deeper and sometimes may hide it underneath the rocks or sand which is primarily to protect it from its predators.

The most striking part of a Stingray's body is its stinger. It has an extremely sharp tip and a staggeringly flexible, barbed tail. It's with its stinger that a stingray attacks its prey. It does so by piercing the body of its predator and injects the venom that it carries in its tail. This fact brings to my memory the unexpected death of wildlife expert Steve Irwin. When he was filming a documentary named Ocean's Deadliest, he happened to go close to a stingray and it accidently pierced his chest and he dies almost instantly. But the stingrays are generally placid in nature and it was very unfortunate that it was responsible for the demise of a man for whom no animal was a strange however big or dangerous it may be. Stingrays are not really aggressive creatures and generally don't attack humans.

The reported deaths of because of stingrays are mainly because it would have stuck and on the vital organs of the human body like the heart.

The eyes are found in the upper part of their body while their mouth is present under their body. An interesting fact is that a stingray can't see its predators or preys that are right in front of it mainly because of the strange positioning of its eyes. However, it smartly counters this aspect with its powerful smelling ability and the presence of electro-receptors that it uses to trace its prey. Even sharks use their smelling ability to identify and hunt their prey down.

A stingray is purely carnivorous and likes feeding on smaller sea creatures. Some of the common preys of a stingray include crabs, oysters, mollusks, snails, clams and selective species of fishes. Not many sea creatures would dare to catch up a fight with the stingray, mainly because of its imposing size. Some of the potential predators of the stingray include the sharks, sea lions and a few other carnivorous species in the sea. Stingrays usually breed more in the winter season and a female fish can give birth to around 10-25 pups every year.

Interesting facts about the stingray
Around 70 species of stingrays have been discovered so far.
Stingrays can live in brackish waters as well as in salt waters. Some ocean experts feel that stingray belongs to the shark family (which could be the reason why they are called as flattened sharks). But contrastingly, white sharks are the most dangerous predators of stingrays.

Stingrays have the ability to coat themselves with the color of their surroundings to protect themselves from predators.

Stingrays spend most of their time by being motionless, partially burying themselves under the sand.

A stingray doesn't have any bone; its body only has cartilages.

The lifespan of stingrays is about 10 to 25 years.
A medical benefit of stingray is that its venom can be used as an anesthetic. A stingrays' spine can be used for making spear tips, needles, daggers, and awls.
It is because of these reasons that fishermen generally cut the stingrays' spine before dropping it back into the sea.

Recently, I happened to watch a program on Discovery Channel about stingrays on my cable powered by Verizon FiOS TV and I was amazed to know some useful information about this interesting species. At last, I have understood that stingrays are the ones that we already know (the one that killed Steve). The truth is they are very gentle in nature, particularly to human.