Reef manta ray

Amazing fact

Reef manta rays can be told apart by the black markings on their bellies.

沖縄美ら海水族館

Reef manta ray in its habitat (illustration)

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An illustration based on the real animal.

A little discovery to share.

Reef manta rays can be told apart by the black markings on their bellies.

Source沖縄美ら海水族館 — ナンヨウマンタ

THE REAL WORLD

The real Reef manta ray

Scientific name: Mobula alfredi
Japanese name: ナンヨウマンタ
Group: Ocean animals

Class: Chondrichthyes
Order: Myliobatiformes
Family: Myliobatidae
Genus: Mobula

Facts about the real animal.

A large ray that lives in warm waters of the Indian and Pacific Oceans, mainly from Okinawa southward.

沖縄美ら海水族館 — ナンヨウマンタ

It unrolls the fins on its head to help funnel food into its mouth.

沖縄美ら海水族館 — ナンヨウマンタ

Despite its huge body, it feeds mainly on tiny plankton.

沖縄美ら海水族館 — ナンヨウマンタ

Basic data

Diet: Small plankton
Range: South of Okinawa and temperate and tropical Indo-Pacific waters

沖縄美ら海水族館

Conservation status in Japan: Data Deficient (DD)Assessed as Manta alfrediMinistry of the Environment of Japan, Marine Red List (2017)

Where the Reef manta ray has been recorded

Records: GBIF.org (CC0 and CC BY 4.0 records, retrieved 2026-11-07). Map: Natural EarthSee the records on GBIF

Where it livesJapan World oceans Ocean Coral reefs

Watch wild animals from a distance. Do not touch or feed them, and take care of the places where they live.

Names around the world

日本語: ナンヨウマンタ
简体中文: 阿氏蝠鲼
繁體中文: 阿氏蝠鱝
Español: Manta de arrecife
Français: Manta des récifs
Deutsch: Riffmanta
Português (Brasil): Manta-dos-recifes
Italiano: Manta del reef
العربية: شفنين الشيطان الأسترالي
ไทย: ปลากระเบนราหูแนวปะการัง

Names come from Wikidata and iNaturalist records. Where a language has no recorded name, we use the scientific name.

Sources and how we check

沖縄美ら海水族館 — ナンヨウマンタChecked: 2026-11-03
Ministry of the Environment of Japan, Marine Red List (2017)Checked: 2026-11-07

We check each fact against its source. The illustrations simplify how the real animal looks.

The classification (class, order, family, genus) follows Wikidata records, checked against GBIF. Classifications can change as research goes on.

The basic data are the values given in each source. They vary with how the animal is measured, whether it is male or female, and whether it lives in the wild or in captivity.

The conservation status in Japan is the category in the Red Lists of the Ministry of the Environment of Japan, which assess the risk of extinction for wild animals in Japan.

This page was translated from the original Japanese with the help of AI.

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