Yellowback stingaree facts for kids
Quick facts for kids Yellowback stingaree |
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| Conservation status | |
| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | |
| Phylum: | |
| Class: | |
| Order: | |
| Family: |
Urolophidae
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| Genus: |
Urolophus
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| Species: |
U. sufflavus
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| Binomial name | |
| Urolophus sufflavus Whitley, 1929
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The yellowback stingaree (Urolophus sufflavus) is a type of stingray that lives in the ocean. It belongs to a group of rays called stingarees. This special fish is mostly found off the coast of New South Wales in Australia, but its home range stretches a little bit into Queensland near Stradbroke Island.
You can find the yellowback stingaree living on soft ocean floors, like sand or mud. It usually lives in deep water, from about 45 to 300 metres (150–980 ft) down. However, it's most common on the edge of the continental shelf, which is like the underwater edge of a continent, at depths of 100–160 metres (330–520 ft).
What Does It Look Like?
The yellowback stingaree can grow up to 42 cm (17 in) long. It has a flat, round body that looks like a disk. This disk is about as wide as it is long, with smooth, rounded corners.
Right in front of its mouth, it has a special "skirt-like" flap called a nasal curtain. This flap helps it sense things in the water.
Its tail is short and strong, usually about two-thirds the length of its body disk. On its tail, it has a spine with jagged edges, which is how it gets the "stingaree" part of its name. It also has a small caudal fin at the end of its tail, which is like a tiny tail fin. Unlike some other fish, it doesn't have any dorsal fins (fins on its back) or folds on the sides of its body.
The skin of the yellowback stingaree is smooth because it doesn't have any rough scales called dermal denticles. Its color is usually a plain yellowish on top. Sometimes, it might have a faint brown stripe running down its back.
Life Cycle and Family
Scientists believe the yellowback stingaree gives birth to live young, similar to how some sharks do. This is called ovoviviparous. This means the eggs hatch inside the mother's body, and the young develop there until they are ready to be born. They likely have only a few babies at a time. Male yellowback stingarees are ready to have their own babies when they reach about 23 cm (9 in) long.
The yellowback stingaree shares some of its home with another type of stingaree called the banded stingaree. What's really interesting is that these two different types of stingarees can sometimes have babies together! This is quite unusual for cartilaginous fish, which are fish like sharks and rays that have skeletons made of cartilage instead of bone. The babies they have together look like a mix of both parents in their color patterns.
Scientists have studied the genes of these fish. In a study from 2007, they found that the yellowback stingaree and the banded stingaree were so similar in their genes that it was hard to tell them apart. This shows how closely related they are!
Protecting the Yellowback Stingaree
The yellowback stingaree lives in an area where a lot of commercial fishing takes place. This means that fishing boats are often in its habitat.
These stingarees are often caught by accident in fishing nets, especially in otter trawls (which drag nets along the seafloor) and gillnets. When they are caught by accident, it's called bycatch. Even though fishermen usually throw them back into the ocean, many of them don't survive. Also, female stingarees that are pregnant often lose their babies if they are caught and handled.
Over the years, the number of stingarees caught in these fishing surveys has gone down a lot. For example, from 1966 to 1997, the number of stingarees caught in trawl surveys off New South Wales dropped by about 65%. Off the coast of Sydney, there was a similar drop of 45%.
Because of these worrying trends and the fact that the yellowback stingaree only lives in a small area, the World Conservation Union has listed it as a Vulnerable species. This means they are at risk of becoming endangered if we don't protect them.
