We know so little about the learning abilities of giant manta rays. Divers are in love with them all around the world. Anybody who was lucky enough to meet them underwater knows how special it is to be around them. They often approach the divers and you have the feeling that they are as much curious about you like you are about them. During my PhD studies I found that they have the largest brain of all fish and I am keen to find out why they need such a large brain.

Part of my mission at the Atlantis Aquarium is to find out more about their memory and learning abilities. To do these kinds of experiments in the wild is almost impossible, so I was very grateful for the Atlantis Aquarium when they agreed to help me working on this exciting topic. They have a large male giant manta ray, Poseidon for years who nicely accommodated to the aquarium settings, therefore he looked like a perfect candidate to ask the questions from: how well manta rays are able to remember and how quickly do they learn?
I can`t tell you how excited I was when we started the experiments and Poseidon quickly responded to the slightest changes and manipulations. He learned years ago how to take the food from the feeding bucket, so we could start from there.

Earlier I wrote you about the feeding training of the new manta ray at Atlantis, but now I would like to show you how a well trained manta ray gets his daily food at the Atlantis Aquarium. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q_nKbix7XcY&list=UU9aT8Iv9RNO7qTf-SOg2ukg&feature=plcp

Unfortunately, the learning training had to be interrupted and postponed due to my hospitalization with severe dengue fever, so I could not conduct the originally designed learning experiments. 2012 will hopefully bring more luck, I am very excited to go back to continue the experiments we started and find out more about how clever manta rays really are. Hope I can give you an approximate answer very soon, which could further strengthen conservation efforts of manta rays all over the world.

Happy holidays to all of you at Save Our Seas and I wish good luck for your work next year as well!