Underwater flight
It flaps its great fins like wings, and can leap clear of the water.
Open ocean
Giant manta ray
Mobula birostris
A huge, flat, diamond-shaped fish that flies through the water on wide wings, with two horn-like fins at the front.
- Size
- Up to 7m across
- Look for it
- All year round
- Where
- Warm seas all round the world
Flies after you with slow beats of its wings. Move your pointer and see.
When to look
Manta ray
Good to know
Six things about the manta ray
The brainiest fish
Mantas have the biggest brain of any fish, and seem to recognise themselves in a mirror.
A gentle giant
It eats only tiny drifting animals, which the fins on its head funnel into its wide mouth.
The cleaning station
Mantas queue at certain reefs where small fish pick them clean of parasites.
A belly like a fingerprint
The pattern of spots on its underside is different on every manta.
No sting
Unlike stingrays, a manta has no sting in its tail. It is harmless.
The real thing
Photos of the manta ray
Photos are from Wikimedia Commons, used under the free licences shown. They have been resized, and cropped where they appear in link previews.
How to spot one
The Maldives, Indonesia and Hawaii have famous manta sites, where snorkellers float above as the mantas loop below.
How to help
Mantas are endangered: they are caught for their gill plates and breed very slowly. Well-run manta tourism gives people a reason to protect them.
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