By admin Seven Florida Aquarium stingrays returned home safely Monday after surviving Hurricane Milton at Tropicana Field in St. Petersburg.
When a storm ripped off the stadium’s fabric roof last Wednesday night, the stingrays remained safe in their 35,000-gallon, 35-foot-long habitat outside right-center field.
Animal care experts at the Florida Aquarium successfully transferred male stingrays from Tropicana Field back to the aquarium in downtown Tampa.
Courtesy
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Florida Aquarium
Animal care experts at the Florida Aquarium successfully transferred male stingrays from Tropicana Field back to the aquarium in downtown Tampa.
“We are pleased to report that the stingrays weathered the storm well. Thanks to the support of the Tampa Bay Rays, our staff was able to provide on-site care over the past several days, and today we safely brought them back to the aquarium,” said Craig Johnson, deputy curator of the Florida Aquarium, in a news release.
“We will continue to monitor their health in the coming days, but everyone is currently eating and behaving normally.”
The stingrays were at the ballpark during the Major League Baseball season as part of the Tampa Bay Rays Touch Experience, the first-ever interactive marine exhibit at a professional sports facility, where the team has been showcasing the aquarium’s popular stingray touch tank since 2006.
The flat-skinned rays, named for their distinctive head shape resembling a cow’s nose, are the same species found in the waters of Tampa Bay.
Courtesy
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Florida Aquarium
Seven cowhide rays are on public display in a separate section of the Stingray Beach exhibit on the second floor of the Florida Aquarium, sponsored by the Tampa Bay Rays.
Seven cowhide rays are on public display in a separate section of the Stingray Beach exhibit on the second floor of the Florida Aquarium, sponsored by the Tampa Bay Rays.
Last week, the Florida Aquarium also evacuated more than 4,000 juvenile corals and more than 100 breeding stocks from the Apollo Beach Coral Conservation and Research Center to other locations in West Palm Beach and Atlanta to protect them from expected storm surge.
These corals, including some rescued during last summer’s marine heat wave in the Florida Keys, are part of a broader initiative to protect species key to marine biodiversity.
Also evacuated to Tampa’s downtown campus was a rescued sea turtle that was found stranded in a roadside ditch in the Weeki Wachee neighborhood after being washed away by Helene’s storm surge.
They also moved several African penguins from their first-floor habitat to the upper level, as well as a piece of moon jellies, six snakes, three lizards, three turtles, two alligators, two toads and a hermit crab.