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Meet the manta ray
Mantas have the largest brain of any fish and visit 'cleaning stations' where small fish nibble their skin clean.
🏡 Warm and temperate oceans worldwide.🍽️ Plankton, filtered from the water while swimming.⏳ Up to 40 years or more.🛡️ Vulnerable — caught in nets and targeted for their gill plates.
Friends and family
They gather in loose groups to feed and queue politely at cleaning stations.
One pup at a time, born fully formed and ready to swim.
How they talk
Body posture, somersaults and chains of swimming partners.
How clever are they?
Mantas remember cleaning stations and feeding spots across huge distances.
What they feel
Mantas approach divers curiously and return to the same friendly spots.
Superpower: Loop-the-loop feeding
Mantas backflip again and again through a plankton cloud to keep their mouths full.
👀 See the world through their eyes
Electricity
Like sharks, they sense the faint electric fields of living things.
🤓 Did you know?
- Mantas have the biggest brain of any fish.
- Every manta has a unique belly spot pattern, like a fingerprint.
- Whether mantas recognise themselves in mirrors is still being studied.scientists are still studying this
Living alongside people
Manta tourism now earns coastal towns far more than manta fishing ever did.