Drone operator films cownose rays in rare mass migration

January 26, 2024 4:06 AM

Drone operator films cownose rays that looked like glitter in rare mass migration off NSW coast. Daniel Lukic's spectacular vision of a massive fever of rays off a Forster beach has caught the attention of a researcher, who says it may contribute to ongoing research about the species.
posted by chariot pulled by cassowaries (18 comments total)

Oh how cool! Last year I saw cownose rays for the first time in a creek just off the York River at Machicomoco State Park in Virginia. I'd seen any number of larger rays before in marine setting previously, but this was the first in (what I assume was) a brackish setting. The water was cloudy with mud, and they were swooping around as rays do, trackable by the ripples, then darkening, and then becoming visible near the surface. I can only imagine what it would be like seeing hundreds in person.
posted by cupcakeninja at 4:18 AM on January 26, 2024 [1 favorite]

The video looks like a close-up of floating glitter, had to look closely to see they were indeed rays.

BTW, is cownose the best name they could come up with?
posted by tommasz at 4:28 AM on January 26, 2024 [1 favorite]

Have you seen the thing? Cownose is being polite. I'm stunned they didn't call it stoner ray, derpy ray or cousin ray.
posted by seanmpuckett at 5:07 AM on January 26, 2024 [5 favorites]

We saw a bunch of these at the Jersey shore a few years ago, right off the beach. They were so close you could see them in the waves that were about to break. I've see lots of cool stuff at the shore, but this was something else.
posted by mollweide at 5:29 AM on January 26, 2024 [1 favorite]

We were in Mexico near Cabo San Lucas. We were staying with sort of friends-of-friends at some Las Vegas style timeshare thing and the residence was way up a hill which required taking a bus (!!!) down an enormously long (like several miles) switchback road just to get out of the housing development (possibly the most obnoxious accommodation in travel I have ever done... I suspect it was built for Americans who didn't want to think they were in a different country). Anyway, the point is this was up on a hill and you could see the Pacific Ocean stretch way out, so the view was spectacular even though the location was not.

I kept seeing what looked like titanic bats flying in lines out over the waters! Way out in the distance, so these things were huge. I looked it up and it turns out they were giant manta rays breaching. They seemed to do it in small groups. Eventually borrowed some binoculars and got a slightly better view. Absolutely astonishing. Hard to see though because they would jump out unexpectedly and "fly" for a short while and then dive back in, so difficult to spot. We had heard of whale sightings (and we saw many of these, too, but far more rays) but I had not heard of these gigantic flying rays at all before we went on the trip.

At times in the trip we were much closer to the ocean and even in the ocean, but I didn't see them then, I suspect because they were far in the distance. Being up on the hillside made it possible to sight. Just fascinating. Cool post.
posted by SoberHighland at 5:51 AM on January 26, 2024 [4 favorites]

Beautiful
posted by supermedusa at 6:10 AM on January 26, 2024

“I’ve seen thing you people wouldn’t believe… cownose rays glitter in rare mass migration off the shoulder of Orion…”
posted by AdamCSnider at 6:51 AM on January 26, 2024 [14 favorites]

TIL a group of rays is called a fever. That’s the next best animal group name evar. A murder of crows will always be no.1.
posted by Thorzdad at 6:57 AM on January 26, 2024 [2 favorites]

at first read i took cownose to be a verb, some sort of weird drone slang
posted by glonous keming at 7:10 AM on January 26, 2024

→ Have you seen the thing? Cownose is being polite

As Fred Schneider sang in Wig: “You should hear what it calls you …”

Seriously, until you can use your rolling dentition to crush bivalves … AFAIK that cownose rays are the only animal that have teeth arranged in a roller fashion. They're so cute! I mean, lookit their smiley wee faces, so hopeful …
posted by scruss at 7:15 AM on January 26, 2024

yeah, hopeful they'll find another quaalude in the muck

they are quite adorable, aren't they
posted by seanmpuckett at 7:20 AM on January 26, 2024

at first read i took cownose to be a verb, some sort of weird drone slang

I thought it was glittering rays of light coming out of cows' noses.
posted by Tell Me No Lies at 8:40 AM on January 26, 2024 [2 favorites]

the title for this post broke my brain's language centers into little pieces. it is delightful when what is objectively a totally straightforward description of something initially seems like a pile of totally disconnected words.

and then on top of that when i see the initialism "nsw" i get tripped up by the visual similarity with "nsfw" and then i find myself unconsciously mashing them together into something like "not safe for wales"
posted by bombastic lowercase pronouncements at 8:59 AM on January 26, 2024 [3 favorites]

That is amazing! and a fever of rays. Who knew.
posted by bluesky43 at 9:18 AM on January 26, 2024

I too read "NSFW coast", that part of Australia that isn't safe for work.
posted by 43rdAnd9th at 9:19 AM on January 26, 2024

Was hoping for a Far Side comic with
cow nose-rays…
posted by calgirl at 12:09 PM on January 26, 2024 [3 favorites]

Yes, the title did me too. Films. Cow. Nose. Rays. Woman. Man. Person. Camera. TV.

Maybe I should eat because to my eye they look like suspiciously well aligned cheesy crackers.
posted by BCMagee at 1:08 AM on January 27, 2024

It looked like some nail polish I've had (well, the nail polish didn't move, but.)
posted by tavella at 2:24 PM on January 27, 2024