Caribbean Stingray Behavior Drastically Transforms for Tourists: More Food, Please!

When you think of feeding sea creatures, you may think of feeding dolphins or sea lions or other mammals. But apparently, tourists prefer feeding a type of fish instead--and their behavior is changing because of it. A new study shows that a group of Southern stingrays in the Caribbean have transformed their behavior in response to tourist handouts.

The study, published in the journal PLOS One, used data from tagged rays that were recaptured in order to track their behavior. The researchers examined a total of 164 stingrays--80 percent female--at the Cayman Islands tourist site where they swam freely.

What did researchers find? They noted that the tourist-fed stingrays were less territorial, for one. Wild stingrays will have their activity sites overlap just three percent of the time. In contrast, the rays in the study moved in areas that overlapped 72 percent of the time.

It wasn't just territory that changed, though. The rays were actually more active during the day--an unusual behavior for creatures that are normally nocturnal. The researchers noted that, more than likely, the stingrays were taking advantage of the daytime visiting hours of the tourists. In addition, there was no particular breeding season for the local rays as there was for the wild rays. Instead, they mated and bred year-round. Clearly, tourists are having a large impact on the rays.

"Measuring that impact is important because there's a lot of interest in creating more of these interactive ecotourism operations," said study co-author Guy Harvey, in an interview with Wildlife News. "But we know little about the life histories of the animals involved or how they might change."

The study itself is important for measuring these impacts and assessing the long-term survival of populations of rays that are affected by tourism. It raises crucial questions about what might happen to the rays if the feedings stopped.

It's unlikely that this particular form of ecotourism will cease any time soon, though. This particular tourist attraction, named Stingray City, rakes in the dollars for the Cayman Islands. Each stingray can generate as much as $500,000 annually in tourism income.

Currently, researchers are planning to continue tracking the rays and the industry's impact on their health.