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Eagle Hill Institute Home

Range Extension in Styracura (= Himantura) schmardae (Caribbean Whiptail Stingray) from The Bahamas

Owen R. O’Shea1,*, Christopher R.E. Ward1, and Edward J. Brooks1

1Shark Research and Conservation Program, The Cape Eleuthera Institute, PO Box EL-26029, Rock Sound, Eleuthera, The Bahamas. *Corresponding author.

Caribbean Naturalist, No. 38 (2017)

Abstract
Styracura (= Himantura) schmardae (Caribbean Whiptail Stingray) is a cryptic batoid found throughout the Caribbean, yet is poorly known from The Bahamas. Anecdotal records suggest this animal may have been distributed throughout the Exuma Cays in the Central Bahamas, but information pertaining to its distribution within The Bahamas is sparse, and therefore is not formally recognized. Here, we present a preliminary abundance assessment and basic demographic observations of this species’ current distribution throughout The Bahamas with notes on historical accounts and habitat occupation. We documented a total of 95 individuals from 32 sites during 137 hours of survey time (0.6 rays hour-1) between January 2015 and September 2016. We captured 74% (n = 70) of the rays to collect data for several on-going studies. We employed DNA barcoding to verify our identifications. Individuals represented disc-width (WD) sizes from 228 mm to 1472 mm. Observations presented here suggest that this species can potentially remain within The Bahamas for its entire life cycle, and we provide the most up-to-date assessment of range extension by this species within The Bahamian Archipelago. Given the fragmented nature of The Bahamas islands, these data validate that surveying biological diversity across multiple spatial scales is a critical step when considering best management practices in marine environments.future studies into the diversity of microbial assemblages in coastal areas.

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