You know, I’ve always thought that the stingray is the “bird of the water,” and I finally have some video evidence to back up my argument.
The Twitter account “Nature is Amazing” shared this incredible video of what is actually a devil ray (same order as stingrays) breaching the water and flapping its fins to allow for it to momentarily remain air born just off the surface of the water.
It really does look it the ray was trying to fly away from the water, but instead got caught up in the air and belly flopped back into the water. I don’t care how tough it is, a bellyflop like that has to hurt.
And I’m assuming that some people will think “oh goodness, it landed right on its face,” and that is partially true. I will give you that.
As much as the underbelly looks like a face, its eyes are actually located on the top of the sea creature’s head. The two black dots on the underneath portion are actually the nostrils of the ray, while the mouth is actually located…well where you think it is.
So yes, it did take the belly flop right to the nostrils and mouth, but the eyes of the devil ray are actually on the top, so it wasn’t actually a “face-flop.” I guess you could call it a “nostril-flop” if you really wanted to.
I’ve watched this video upwards of 20 times now and I still can’t believe how hard this thing was trying to fly. It’s almost as if the sea creature is training for something, and I would like to know if this breaching of the water happened multiple times.
If it did, this ray is most definitely evolving into an air and sea creature, which would be fascinating and terrifying at the same time.
Take a look:
I watched this above video and decided to Google “flying rays.”
This video clip from BBC popped up, and I got unreasonably excited. Then, I was disappointed to see that they “flew” just as much as Kane Brown “plays country music.” It had all the pieces there of flying, but it didn’t actually fly through the air.
That’s why you always keep your expectations low so you never can be disappointed.
The video is still pretty cool though, so if you have two minutes to spare, you might as well check it out:
As cool as these rays can be, they will always be at the number one spot in my personal “most hated wild animal” list.
I’ll never forgive them for taking away Steve Irwin from this planet… stingrays, devil rays, manta rays… all of them.
R.I.P. Steve Irwin. Gone far too soon.
