Background

Basically nothing is known about the sensory, learning abilities or social life of giant manta rays. They are difficult to study in their natural habitat, because their presence is often unpredictable, an experiment conducted in the wild is often expensive, and it is hard to create a well-controlled environment. Manta rays have demonstrated curiosity and interest toward divers at many tourist locations, but we do not have information what might be the effect of the presence of human on their behavior. However, their populations are decreasing due to commercial or artisanal fisheries in many countries and the species is near threatened. My neuroanatomical research on Mobulid brains and the preliminary experiments on wild manta rays in the Maldives and Ecuador suggest strong evidence that these animals live a much more complex social life than we might think, and that they have cognitive abilities only known from other large-brained animals, such as elephants or dolphins. The curiosity and interest of these animals toward humans, as well as the results of the preliminary experiments have inspired me to conduct more detailed experiments in a well-controlled environment. I have been in contact with the Atlantis Aquarium, Bahamas for several years in order to continue my experiments on the giant manta rays, which I started at the Lisbon Aquarium. The results of that research were published as the first scientific paper on a behavioral experiment conducted on a giant manta ray (Manta birostris).

Aims and Objectives

The general aim of this research is to better understand how well manta rays are able to sense the environment around them, which sensory cues are more important for them then others, how well they are able to learn and remember, compared to other fishes with much smaller brain size. How complex their social life is, how do they communicate with each other or probably with other species.

I intend to increase awareness in the public of these magnificent animals throughout these popular topics. The results of this project will also support conservation activities in many countries and better handling of captive individuals.