Endangered
Reticulate whipray
Himantura uarnak
Reticulate whipray is a stingray in the family Dasyatidae (order Myliobatiformes) — Himantura uarnak, recorded as Endangered.
Appearance
In juveniles, the disc is about as wide as long, with a more obtuse snout and rounded corners. The tail is whip-like and extremely thin, measuring 3–3.5 times as long as the disc when intact, and lacks fin folds. The dorsal band of denticles is largely developed by the time the juveniles are 50 cm (20 in) across.
Range and habitat
Habitat of the reticulate whipray includes coral reefs, brackish water and marine environments. Within these ecosystems they can be found inshore and on soft substrates. Distribution occurs in the North of Taiwan, the Western Indian Ocean (mainly in Malaysia, Myanmar, Indo-Pacific), The Red Sea, west to the Natal in South Africa, and the Arabian Sea.
Pins are Wikidata “endemic to” fields. Orange dots, when present, are GBIF occurrence tiles — survey bias included.
Diet and breeding
Rays feed on the bottom or in open water depending on the family. Nets and shallow-water fisheries are the usual human contact.
Sharks and rays grow slowly and have few young. A fishery that treats them as bycatch can empty a coastal form.
In crisis
Often encountered resting on the bottom during daytime, the reticulate whipray is a predator of bottom-dwelling invertebrates and bony fishes. It is highly susceptible to population depletion because of its large size, inshore habits, and low reproductive rate, and is additionally threatened by extensive habitat degradation. Consequently, the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) has assessed this species as Endangered.
The reticulate whipray's endangered IUCN status has led to increasing concerns for global population security. Integration of techniques such as environmental DNA analyses can be used to effectively monitor localized populations and their critical habitats.
Reticulate whipray is Endangered on this catalog because that is the IUCN category stored on Wikidata. Confirm the official criteria and any later count on iucnredlist.org.
Sources
Written for this catalog from the English Wikipedia article on Reticulate whipray, Wikidata item Q1254948. Family and order context is original field-guide writing about the group, not a copied assessment of this one species. Wikipedia text is CC BY-SA. Not an IUCN assessment. Counts, when quoted, can change — confirm them on the recovery programme and on iucnredlist.org.
