Crunch! (VIDEO)
Caption
Turn up the sound! Using the whitespotted eagle ray and underwater acoustic recorders, a study is the first to characterize how they consume hard-shelled mollusk prey like clams in a controlled environment. Scientists could tell what a predator was eating based on how it sounds, and with this process it's audible above ambient noise in coastal lagoons out to 100 meters. The team hopes this technology will be useful in monitoring how many clams are being eaten by large predators like rays as restoration efforts ramp up in Florida.
Credit
Florida Atlantic University's Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institute
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Credit: Florida Atlantic University's Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institute
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