Stingray
You’re at the ocean walking through the water; when all of a sudden you see something move only inches away from your feet. You can’t see what it is, but little do you know, you just barely escaped a very painful attack. Stingrays are both dangerous and very interesting animals, from their amazing camouflaging abilities, to their incredibly painful stings.
Stingrays have such incredible camouflaging abilities, they can practically hide in plain site. Stingrays come in a multitude of colors that help them hide. To aid their hiding, they spend most of their time hidden under the sand mostly only moving to sway with the ocean. (National Geographic) Their flattened body helps them easily wedge themselves under the sand.
Since they can camouflage themselves so easily, it’s scary that they’re actually very dangerous to humans. A stingray’s tail is barbed and loaded with an excruciatingly painful toxin. They have a long tail covered in bunches of teeth-like barbs. The barbs are made out of vasodentin, which is a cartilaginous material strong enough to cut through skin. Once the tail in lodged in their prey, or in cases with humans; skin, when pulled out can leave barbs imbedded in the skin. (Wikipedia) Their natural instinct as a defense mechanism is to sting, and this can be incredibly painful because of its agonizingly painful venom. (Bioexpedition) The venom’s symptoms can cause nausea, vomiting …show more content…
While the amounts of deaths because of stingrays sadly aren’t perfectly documented, stingray deaths are very few and far between, but it’s believed that there have only been 30 recorded cases of death by stingray attacks ever. Stingrays are very curious creatures, but they never go out of their way to attack humans. They only ever attack in defense, for instance if you were about to step on it, or if you were in its territory. So while they can be painful, they’re usually gentle
You’re at the ocean walking through the water; when all of a sudden you see something move only inches away from your feet. You can’t see what it is, but little do you know, you just barely escaped a very painful attack. Stingrays are both dangerous and very interesting animals, from their amazing camouflaging abilities, to their incredibly painful stings.
Stingrays have such incredible camouflaging abilities, they can practically hide in plain site. Stingrays come in a multitude of colors that help them hide. To aid their hiding, they spend most of their time hidden under the sand mostly only moving to sway with the ocean. (National Geographic) Their flattened body helps them easily wedge themselves under the sand.
Since they can camouflage themselves so easily, it’s scary that they’re actually very dangerous to humans. A stingray’s tail is barbed and loaded with an excruciatingly painful toxin. They have a long tail covered in bunches of teeth-like barbs. The barbs are made out of vasodentin, which is a cartilaginous material strong enough to cut through skin. Once the tail in lodged in their prey, or in cases with humans; skin, when pulled out can leave barbs imbedded in the skin. (Wikipedia) Their natural instinct as a defense mechanism is to sting, and this can be incredibly painful because of its agonizingly painful venom. (Bioexpedition) The venom’s symptoms can cause nausea, vomiting …show more content…
While the amounts of deaths because of stingrays sadly aren’t perfectly documented, stingray deaths are very few and far between, but it’s believed that there have only been 30 recorded cases of death by stingray attacks ever. Stingrays are very curious creatures, but they never go out of their way to attack humans. They only ever attack in defense, for instance if you were about to step on it, or if you were in its territory. So while they can be painful, they’re usually gentle