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Cowtail Stingray
Pastinachus sephen (Forsskål, 1775)
A Cowtail Stingray at a depth of 4 m, North West Island, Queensland, November 2004. Photo © S. Schulz. View larger image.
Above and below: A Cowtail Stingray caught at the Triangular Islands, Shoalwater Bay, Queensland, February 1981. Photo © J. Lewis. View larger image.
The Cowtail Stingray has a disc that is slightly wider than long. It has small eyes and a very wide interorbital space. The tail is about twice the length of the disc. The upper surface of the disc is a uniform grey, brown or black. The lower surface is white. The tail is depressed basally becoming more cylindrical distally. The broad skin flap and tip of the tail are black.
It grows to a total length of at least 3 m and width of 1.8 m.
This species occurs in tropical marine waters of the Indo-West Pacific. It can be found in muddy and sandy substrates in estuarine mangrove areas and inshore waters down to about 60 m in depth.
In Australia it is known from the central coast of Western Australia, around the tropical north of the country and south to the central coast of New South Wales .
View a map of the collecting localities of specimens in the Australian Museum Fish Collection.
It has also been called the Banana-tail Ray, Fantail Ray, Feathertail Stingray, Guergunna and Weralli.
Related links
- View the Stingrays list
- View the Family Dasyatidae list
Further reading
- Allen, G.R. 1997. Marine Fishes of Tropical Australia and South-east Asia. Western Australian Museum. Pp. 292.
- Last, P.R. & L.J.V. Compagno. 1999. Dasyatidae. in Carpenter, K.E. & V.H. Niem (Eds). FAO Species Identification Guide for Fishery Purposes. The Living Marine Resources of the Western Central Pacific. Volume 3. Batoid fishes, chimaeras and bony fishes part 1 (Elopidae to Linophrynidae). FAO, Rome. Pp. iii-vi, 1398-2068.
