Administrator’s Note: This paper was published in the Diversity Journal on 27, May, 2024 by Dr. Edy Setyawan, Shawn Heinrichs, and Dr. Mark Erdmann.  The video (and images) were captured by Shawn (Blue Sphere Media) in SE Misool, West Papua, Indonesia.

This paper documents a virtually unprecedented event in the lives of manta rays where different species engage in courtship behavior.   Many readers will be aware that Raja Ampat is one of the few places on earth where both reef and oceanic manta rays co-occur, with a number of sites in SE Misool where reef and oceanic mantas utilize the same cleaning stations, sometimes simultaneously. (Want to know more about the natural history of mantas?  Read Edy’s previous paper, “Natural History of Mantas in the Bird’s Head“.) In this paper the authors describe an amazing encounter by Shawn Heinrichs in which two male oceanic mantas engaged in courtship behavior with a large female reef manta. Importantly, though there is one scientifically documented case of a manta in the Red Sea that was a hybrid of the two species, this is the first documented case of courtship between the two species.

You can read the article here, First Documented Courtship Behavior between Mobula birostris and M. Alfredi.

Figure 1. Courtship behavior between a male oceanic manta ray (M. birostris) and a female reef manta ray (M. alfredi) at a cleaning station, Misool, Southern Raja Ampat, Eastern Indonesia.
(A) A male oceanic manta ray (M. birostris) pursues a female reef manta ray (M. alfredi) in a courtship behavior.
(B) Detailed interaction showing the male using its right cephalic lobe to make contact with the
female’s left pectoral fin, precisely at the site of a previous mating scar.

Figure 2. Dorsal surface view illustrating coloration changes from pale hue to normal dark hue in a chevron-patterned female reef manta ray (M. alfredi) at the conclusion of the courtship event on 14 December 2016, at Misool, Southern Raja Ampat, Eastern Indonesia.

All images © Shawn Heinrichs (Blue Sphere Media)

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