The giant devil ray is an indubitably fantastic name for an aquatic animate being , and it certainly lives up to it . Technically know asMobula mobular , this beastie is not only the largest of its genus , reach lengths of 6.5 meters ( 21 feet ) , but its school principal ’s down - point cephalic louvre surely give it the appearance of some unholy horns .
Plenty about its life cps remain enigmatic , however , which is why a new bailiwick , spotted byNew Scientist , is such a blessing . It delineate the first observation of the courtship behaviour of the giant devil ray , with an accompanying video featuring one pregnant female fend off the advances of four males .
TheNew Zealand Journal of Zoologystudy has just two authors : Scott Tindale , a recreational fisherman from Albany , and Clinton Duffy , an Auckland - based marine technical officer at the New Zealand Department of Conservation .
Their footage , obtained in March 2017 in the temperate southwest Pacific Ocean off the seashore of Aotearoa , not only papers a never - before - seen phenomenon , but the mien of the pregnant female also confirm thatM. mobularbreeds ( at nameless separation ) in this part of the world , to which they migrate seasonally .
This research is n’t just a oddity , by the way : it ’s lively . jumbo devil rays are listed asendangered , according to the International Union for Conservation of Nature ( IUCN ) . Their population appear to have declined precipitously in late decades , not only because they have a scummy procreative capability , giving birth to a unmarried pup at once , but also thanks to fishing pressure level .
The more we realise about their living cycle , the better chance we have at preserving their specie .
The incident involved what they refer to as a “ mating train ” consisting of a full - term fraught female person and four mature male , observed over a menses of 147 mo . In universal , you could describe it as an unwelcome chase , as the female spent the entireness of the time evading capture , intentionally swimming tight to the surface to stop any of the males successfully mounting her .
The mating train characteristic , along with such patterns of distaff avoidance , has been observed in other turgid mobulid rays . Conversely , the paper note that , in this instance , “ biting of the female person was not observed , ” possibly because of her near - open evasive action . No conjugation scars were spotted . On other occasions , the males appeared to hear and bite the female ’s pectoral fins , also in vain .
At the same clip , no hostility between the competing Male was observed .
Whenever the female terminate at the Earth’s surface , the lead male would essentially dig her abdomen and her sewer , an all - purpose orifice . All in all , the authors advise that the mating behavior was very similar to that of the bay ray , Mylobatis californica , both of which belong to the same kinsperson .
