Stingray Bay display open
Sharks also lurk in handson zoo exhibit
Thirty- one stingrays seem to fly like birds underwater, while eight sharks hug the sides and bottom of the 17,000-gallon saltwater pool they share.
Stick a hand into the water, and the stingrays think it’s feeding time. They swim toward the hand for a closer look, while the sharks remain in the background.
“The stingrays are almost like puppy dogs. Each has its own personality,” says communications assistant Laura Doty at the Memphis Zoo and Aquarium where the new “Stingray Bay” exhibit opens Saturday for a seven-month stay.
The creatures then pack up to winter in Florida from October until returning the following March. It is the first exhibit in which zoo visitors are allowed to interact with marine animals.
While the stingrays look like alien creatures with indistinct heads, they are “very smart,” says Doty. “They solve puzzles 10 times faster than cats.”
For some, the chance to pet a stingray will bring back memories of “Crocodile Hunter” Steve Irwin’s fatal 2006 encounter with a stingray, but Doty says every stingray in the exhibit has been de-barbed. One or two barbs grow on the tails of a stingray and are used as a “last-resort” defensive measure when the creature feels threatened.
The bony-looking venomous barbs are attached to the tail, and it may take up to a year for a barb to grow back once it is deployed. Emily Burford feeds a shark at Stingray Bay, a temporary exhibit that opens Saturday at the Memphis Zoo. It features 31 stingrays and eight sharks.
To trim the barbs, zoo workers use clippers, similar to dog nail clippers, that snip off the barb or barbs from each stingray.
To pet the creatures, visitors must first wash their hands at a sink set up at the entrance to the exhibit, then reach into the pool, which is maintained at 78 degrees. “It’s like a big hot tub,” says Abbey Dane, director of marketing and communications for the zoo.
As the stingrays approach, they do not seem to shy away as visitors reach down to touch the slick mucous-like covering of the creature. The skin feels rubbery. Several of the stingrays have what appear to be minor injuries. “Their skin is very delicate,” says Doty, but she can’t explain the scrapes, which could have occurred during the trip from Florida to Memphis. Or they may be the aftermath of mating during which male stingrays may bite their partners.
The mouths of stingrays are on the undersides of the flat-bodied creatures, and zoo visitors will be allowed to feed them cups of approved food, including shrimp and river smelt that can be purchased for $2 during periodic feeding times. In their natural habitats the placement of the mouth on the underside of the stingray allows it to hover over food on the ocean floor and suck it into the body where shellcrushing plates break the shells of mollusks and crustaceans.
The zoo exhibit is a partnership with a company called Living Exhibits Inc. and is housed on the west side of the zoo. General admission is $4 or $3 for zoo members.