Yellow Stingray - Distribution and Habitat

Distribution and Habitat

The yellow stingray is found throughout the inshore waters of the Gulf of Mexico (where it is the only representative of its family) and the Caribbean Sea, including Florida, the Bahamas, and the Greater and Lesser Antilles to Trinidad. On rare occasions, it ranges as far north as Cape Lookout in North Carolina. It is quite abundant in the Florida Keys and parts of the Antilles, and rather uncommon elsewhere. Off Mexico, this species occupies a salinity range of 26–40 ppt.

Benthic in nature, the yellow stingray inhabits coastal habitats such as bays, lagoons, estuaries, and low-energy surf zones, and has been reported from the water's edge to a depth of 25 m (82 ft). It particularly favors insular hard-bottomed habitats with a dense encrustation of sessile invertebrates (termed live-bottom habitats), but can also be found over sand, mud or seagrass (Thalassia), sometimes in the vicinity of coral reefs. Off Jamaica, large numbers of yellow stingrays, up to one per square meter, gather beneath the aerial roots of mangrove trees used as roosts by cattle egrets (Bubulcus ibis); it is theorized that the birds' droppings sustain invertebrates that attract the rays. There is no evidence of seasonal migration, though during the spring females tend to be found closer to shore than males.