Colares stingray

The Colares stingray (Fontitrygon colarensis) belongs to the Dasyatidae family and lives in the shallow, brackish waters where the Amazon River meets the sea in northern Brazil. During the dry season, it stays in coastal bays like Marajó Bay, but when the rains come, it moves offshore, following changes in salinity. Its body features a diamond-shaped pectoral fin disk, a long, pointed snout, and a dark, straight band across the lower lip. Males grow to a disk width of 63 cm (25 in) and a total length of 2.07 m (6.8 ft), while females reach 91 cm (36 in) across and 2.61 m (8.6 ft) long. The snout is shorter in females, and their teeth are flat-crowned, unlike the pointed, recurved teeth of males. Small, flattened tubercles run along the back from between the eyes to the tail base, and females also have them on the underside. The tail is whip-like, more than twice the disk length, and bears a stinging spine with 69–70 serrations. Coloration is a uniform light brown above, darker on the tail and male claspers, with a pale underside that darkens toward the fin edges.

Like other stingrays, this species gives birth to live young without a placenta. Only females that have recently become pregnant are found inshore, suggesting the annual movements are tied to reproduction. Litter sizes range from one to four pups, and the cycle may repeat each year. The species was first described in 2004 by Hugo Santos, Ulisses Gomes, and Patricia Charvet-Almeida in the journal *Zootaxa*; its scientific name comes from Colares Island in Marajó Bay, where the type specimen—a mature male 2.07 m long—was caught. Its range appears limited to the Amazon River mouth, possibly extending as far as Venezuela, and it is found at depths up to 6 m (20 ft).

The Colares stingray faces serious threats. It is caught as bycatch in artisanal and commercial fisheries targeting catfish in the Amazon estuary, and since the 2000s, industrial vessels from the Brazilian state of Pará have also fished for it directly, exporting the meat to Europe. Because of its small range, slow reproduction, and vulnerability to fishing gear, the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) lists it as critically endangered. The IUCN has recommended that Brazil create habitat protections and manage fisheries to help the species survive.