Once settled on when swimming the seabed, their 15 brown bodies are 5 10 camouflaged as they 25 clamber over sand km/h 5 10 15 20 and mud. Batfish swim close to the ocean mph 12 mph (20 km/h) floor. DIET Small snails, clams, shrimp, worms, and fish STATS AND FACTS DEPTH ft 200 400 A batfish gets its name because its slow, m 60 120 crawling gait looks like 9¾–480 ft 180 that of a bat clambering SPEED (3–146 m) over the ground.LOCATION Cocos and Galápagos Islands in the eastern Pacific Ocean.HABITAT Tropical coastal waters on mud and sandy bottoms.Although it is capable of swimming, this fish spends much of its time “walking” on the sea floor with stiffened leglike fins. When this pokes out, its tip releases a perfume into the water to entice prey. The batfish has a stubby fishing pole hidden under the “horn” on its forehead. WALKING WONDER RED-LIPPED BATFISH No one knows for sure why the red-lipped batfish wears so much face paint, but there is no mistaking how it gets its dinner. Usually two Broad “wings” are venomous hugely expanded spines pectoral fins Paler underside lacks AMAZING ANATOMY the dark pigment of the camouflaged upper surface 51 ![]() Seawater taken in through These are sharp enough the mouth leaves through gill slits to inject a painful venom. N 2–2¾ in (5–7 cm) 4 UMBER OF YOUNG 710 STINGING SPINES UNDERSIDE The ray has one or two The ray’s mouth is on its underside- jagged spines along its perfect for grabbing food from the tail that cause the sting. STATS AND FACTS Mouth MAXIMUM WIDTH Gill slits in 4 8 12 The ray uses its tail 16 to whip a predator, cm 10 20 30 SPINE LENGTH 12 in (30 cm) and sometimes the 40 venomous spine’s tip in 1 2 3 breaks off in the cm 2.5 5 7.5 victim’s skin.MAX. ![]() Like other rays, its side fins are massively expanded to form “wings,” which it can flap to “fly” through the water. Winged wanderer The stingray spends much of its time on the bottom, but it is also a graceful swimmer. This allows the ray to keep watch over the sands for danger or food.
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