Wounded manta ray begged divers for help

So cool. A feel good story to kick of this weekend with:

Moment a wounded manta ray begged divers for help:

Moment a wounded manta ray begged divers for help: Sea creature approached film crew and flipped over to ask them to for help to remove hooks embedded under her eye

-Photographer, Jake Wilton, was diving in Western Australia when the wounded manta ray approached
-Mr Wilton, who knows the ray as 'Freckles', soon realised the majestic beast had hooks caught under her eye
-Footage shows the animal unfurling her wings before Mr Wilton and floating completely still before the diver
-After several attempts Mr Wilton was able to free the hooks and save her from potential blindness and disease

'I knew we had to get the hooks out of her eye or she would have been in big trouble.'
After a few attempts, Mr Wilton needed one final dive to clear the hooks.
'I went down for one last try and the manta stayed completely still in the water,' he said.
The video shows Jake rise triumphantly from the ocean with the hooks before the ray swims majestically away.

These beautiful creature appear to be very intelligent, maybe more than we give them credit for.

a reply to: ClovenSky

Beautiful story from a beautiful part of the world. IMO, indeed marine creatures have intelligence and I would posit that such intelligence and abilities in certain species meets or even supersedes that of humans.

If you ever visit Australia, make sure you go to Exmouth, so you can go and see Ningaloo reef - you will not see that many blues and greens intermixed within your visual scope anywhere else in the world, it's home to an annual migration of Whale-sharks and the diving is spectacular - only a poet or artist could give an adequate description.

So glad the ray was looked after by old mate - that's the way we as humans should be interacting with our non-human friends.

a reply to: ClovenSky

Dear ATS Readers, Writers,

Thanks ClovenSky, that young lad is a wonderful person for doing this for this manta ray.

It is also nice to see a news item with an unusual topic, and a great "feel good" ending.

What is even more remarkable is that this shows everyone that animals in many cases are much smarter than people have thought for years.

I raise small finches, and even amongst these little tiny birds, you have remarkable different personalities and levels of interaction with humans. Even the little tiny finches have individuals who will interact with humans, and show signs of being a bit smarter, or actually thinking a situation through to a good "food win" for them.

I have 2 or 3, same ones every time, who will come and land on my arm from time to time. Granted, it is usually at feeding time when I top up their feeder with fresh seeds for them. They know, I suppose, if they are right there, they can get in there and get the best seeds for them..Ha.

Yesterday, I was on the water taxi coming home to my resident island. I saw about 5 porpoises working together for a feed on fish. They have figured out how to use a new cove created by a new parking lot on one of the islands, as a natural "corral" and work as a group to catch their dinner there.

3 or 4 would do the herding, whilst the loner or pair would go in for the kill and eat, then they trade positions and did the herding for the other ones. You could tell the difference due to the coloured patches on their backs and fin shape.

Manta Rays are super cool animals... rays in general are really cool critters. I am not surprised at all by this behaviour from the Manta Ray. They are noted for being smarter than the average ray by past observations by scientists and divers.

S&F from me, thanks for the cool story.

Pravdaseeker

a reply to: Sublimecraft

Dear ATS Readers, Writers,

Greetings sublime... I live up the coast a ways from you... Russell Island..

STRAYA! A bit disappointed with 3rd state of origin outcome.. such a good comeback from being so far behind, to only get beat in last seconds of the game... Should have kicked a field goal, instead of the wonky kick...and subsequent defeat.

Whilst waiting for a water taxi one day, I watched a sea eagle working with porpoises too in a symbiotic behaviour thing. He would fly above and ahead of the porpoises and would dive in catch a fish that they had scared to the surface. It took him a few tries, but was successful after about 4 tries. It left, then came back about 15 minutes later...and did it AGAIN!

I reckon the eagle was making relay runs to a nest somewhere... screaming kids, hungry... so it used the porpoises as a short cut for food gathering. Pretty bloody smart really.

If one can "afford" to slow down and just watch the world; you see amazing things from the animal world. Especially around the ocean, or land/sea interface...

You can't beat Australia for these type of observations, sometimes on just a daily commute to and from work.

Pravdaseeker

a reply to: pravdaseeker

LOL - small world, I have a mate who has a holiday home about 300m from the island yacht club, right on the water. I was on Russell about 6 months ago for a few days holiday - tastiest mud crabs I've ever eaten!!! look for the house with the compass-rose painted onto the roof gable.

So why did a manta ray kill Steve Irvin?
www.telegraph.co.uk... y-cameraman-reveals.html
Sad Rainbows
Jane

a reply to: angelchemuel

A manta didn’t kill Steve Irwin.

a reply to: Chadwickus

Thank you, it's very late, a few G&T's and I am obviously a little confused
*note to self....don't comment on a Friday night if you've had a couple*

Rainbows
Jane

Here's the part of me that loves animals: I have experienced similar things with dogs, cats, and birds...some know how to ask for help when they really need it.

A recent one was when I was playing golf. We had teed off and were setting up to hit the second shot, and from a water hazard left of the fairway we heard a duck quacking in a strange way. I took a few steps toward the pond and a female mallard flew toward me and landed about 10 feet away. She was in distress, quacking as if panicked. She ran back toward the pond about five feet, turned around and looked at me, ran a few more feet, turned around, ran some more, etc., quacking the entire time. I followed her down an embankment and she stopped by a buried valve box that houses a control valve for the fairway sprinklers. The lid was missing. I looked down inside and there were nine little yellow baby ducklings in the bottom. The box was about a foot square and 18" deep. There was no way the ducklings could get out by themselves. Mama duck was right next to me as I lifted each one out and placed them on the grass. When the last one was out, mama duck herded them down to the pond. I got back to my cart ad drove to the course maintenance building and asked for a valve box lid. They said they'd get right on it, but I told them I was not leaving until I had one in my hand. I got back to the pond and put the lid on. Mama duck quacked a 'thank you' to me as I played through.

Okay, so now here's the skeptical part of me: if I were on that dive boat, the absolute last thing on my mind would have been "hey--let's get that drone in the air and get some really great shots." A drone overhead is extremely distressing to just about any animal, in or out of the water. Anything overhead is a potential predator. I have my doubts about this story; if they were truly concerned for the welfare of that magnificent creature, they would've grounded that drone and taken care of the problem.

a reply to: Chadwickus

I am afraid one did (ACTUALLY NO I AM SORRY IT WAS A "STINGRAY" YOU ARE CORRECT), Steve Irwin aka Crocodile hunter whom loved the animal's may have upset the animal, perhaps it thought he was a shark and it acted in self defence but it either way it stabbed him with it's stinger in his chest.

Bit of a long url here for the story.
www.telegraph.co.uk... y-cameraman-reveals.html

They only ever act in self defence and are not dangerous so his death was a freak accident, probably as the article suggests the ray thought that his shadow over it was the shadow of a tiger shark about to attack it and it then tried to defend itself with fatal consequences for Irwin.

I will not link to the video of his death which has been uploaded to youtube several time's over as it is extremely disrespectful and I will not watch it myself as I am not a ghoulish person, he was a likable personality and loved the animal's, it was just his time to go.

Beautiful illustration of how we humans need to stop and think. We are not the smartest animals on the planet. We are the stupid animal who pollutes and endangers it. The store clerk at TJ Maxx yesterday asked me for the millionth time, did I want to apply for credit card? I said: "TJ Maxx should be asking people how much trash and pollution they cleaned up that week." It just shows you how capitalistic and stupid our priorities are. Since there are so many humans on this planet now, new rules and priorities need to be in place to preserve and protect the other animals on this earth.

Humans are probably related to this creature

Great videos, as a keen scuba diver I love seeing videos like these. there's all sorts of videos out on YouTube where divers help marine life. One of my favourites is a group of divers are on a night dive when a dolphin comes to them asking for help. It had a hook and fishing like wrapped round one of its fins and it swam and patiently floated there while the diver removed it.

a reply to: ClovenSky

If only that Manta had known it was humans that put those hooks in her to begin with... :/

2nd

a reply to: ClovenSky

Omg, this is so heart warming. This story moved tears in my eyes.

That's a pretty awesome story.

That was an awesome story, thanks for sharing.

I think from time to time about some of the sharks they’ve found to be between 270-500 yrs old and what they’ve seen and experienced. They’ve been alive longer than America has been country. I can only imagine that they’ve learned a few things. Humans could certainly learn a thing or two from these animals if we give them the opportunity.

a reply to: ClovenSky

Perfect example of intelligence in the Animal Kingdom. Just because they don't talk your language it doesn't make them any less intelligent.

What a great story! Thanks for posting it - I'll be telling that to my girlfriend.