Manta Rays!

Rays in general are amazing and beautiful creatures. Manta Rays in particular are the biggest of the Rays. They seem to glide effortlessly through the water, with graceful movements. Manta Rays are also very mysterious animals to us, because there are a lot of things that humans do not know about them.

cute and squishy!

beautiful markings on underside.

Manta Rays have unique patterns on their undersides; the colors are different depending on the area they are from. For example, Manta Rays from the eastern Pacific often have mostly black undersides, while Manta Rays from the western Pacific are usually white underneath.

Manta Rays are known to jump high out of the water! The meaning of these jumps is unknown, but possible reasons could be:


- communication with other rays
- mating ritual
- avoiding predators/disturbances
- they are just having fun!

Manta Rays nibble on plankton, krill, fish larvae, and other small organisms. They obtain their food through a filtering process as they swim. As the Manta Ray swims through the ocean, the water is filtered through its gills, trapping any particles.


Small fish often feed on parasites on the Manta Rays' skin. This is a mutualistic symbiotic relationship, where the small fish obtain food and the Manta Ray is cleaned of harmful parasites. 


Manta Rays also migrate to find food, although their exact route is unknown. 

The Leatherback Sea Turtle!

I hope you have not been waiting impatiently for my latest post. I've had a busy week in school! But if you have been waiting, then all that time will definitely be worth it to see this really cute Leatherback sea turtle!

Baby turtle crawling toward the ocean.

Sea turtle eggs are laid on a sandy beach. The mommy comes onto land and digs a deep hole in the sand with her back flippers. Then she lays a bunch of little eggs in the hole and covers it back up with sand.

When the sea turtles hatch they have to dig themselves out of the nest and crawl toward the sea. They usually crawl out of the sand at night, when the brightest light is over the ocean (the sunlight reflected off the moon). The babies just move toward the light and find the ocean!

Leatherback turtles can dive pretty deep underwater, up to 1000 meters!, but have to come to the surface to breathe air.


They are also considered the fastest moving reptile!

Carl Safina with a Leatherback Turtle.

Full grown Leatherback turtles are huge!

These turtles love to eat jellyfish so much that they don't eat anything else.








P.S: I changed my comment settings and now anyone can comment on my posts :)

Mola Mola (Ocean Sunfish)!

The Mola mola is a very bizzare and spectacular fish. Some other names for it are "swimming head" because they do not have tails, or ocean sunfish because they like "sun bathing" at the surface of the water.


Strange!



It looks like only half a fish and weighs a lot. Mola molas can be fairly big.


 
 
 
 
 
 

 
 
This is a Mola mola "sunbathing" at the surface of the water. He's soaking up some rays to warm up before he takes a dive into the chilly water. Mola molas like pretty warm water, at least in the double digits.
 
 
 
 



Ocean sunfish are into jellyfish as their main food source. The sunfish can also act like a plate so other fish and animals can eat little parasites from its body!
 
Mola molas can also jump really high out of the water! As much as three body lengths!

Manatees! Yay!

Manatees are so strange and beautiful. They are big and squishy and have spatula shaped tails. Manatees are considered incapable of aggression!

  

Cute flipper.

They have cute flippers that they can use to cuddle or hold food, like seagrass. Seagrass is their favorite snack.

    

Mommy manatee cuddles baby manatee

Manatees only like swimming, cuddling, and living in warm water, like in the cozy ocean surrounding Florida.

num num num

This is a fantastic picture of a manatee eating
nummy seagrass that I have hanging
in my bedroom.

Snailia holding knitted manatees.

The amazingly cute and cool Axolotl!

My favorite kind of axolotl are the leucistic and albino colored. These salamanders are light pink in color with black or pink eyes.

Most salamanders go through metamorphosis, but not axolotls! They keep their gills and stay living in the water.

Axolotls use their sense of smell to find worms, little fishies, and bugs to nibble on.

These cute animals can live to be about 10 to 15 years old.

Sadly they are "critically endangered" due to habitat destruction. :(