TAMPA, Fla. — ZooTampa at Lowry Park opened its new "StingRay Shores," an interactive stingray habitat.
The 30,000 gallon saltwater pool is home to two species of stingrays, cownose and southern stingrays.
Zoo guests will be able to touch and feed the stingrays.
"The cownose rays came from the Jacksonville Zoo. They were born there and the Audubon Zoo is where the southern stingrays were born. They've been with us for a few months now to get acclimated to the new habitat and getting them use to their new environment and they're doing incredibly well," said Molly Lippincott, ZooTampa Senior Curator of Florida and Marine Life.
The pool is low enough for children to look and reach into the water. The pool also has "rest zones" for the animals to take a break.
"We really wanted it to be more of a naturalistic environment for our animals so we have new rock work as well as a sandy bottom, we didn't have that previously and that provides an area where the animals can bury themselves which is a natural behavior for them. There are areas with rest zones. They don't have to be around people if they want to take a break.," said Lippincott.
Guests may also participate in a Signature Encounter where they may go into the water.
"They'll tell you all about the rays. You can feed them. We have special view finders where you can view them underwater so that's a brand new experience where they didn't have that before," said Lippincott.
Guests must sign up for the Signature Encounter a day before their visit.
In May of 2021, the zoo lost 12 stingrays suddenly after the animals died from gas bubble disease. Zoo officials shut down the stingray exhibit.
Gas bubble disease is a fatal condition that is similar to the "bends" in human scuba divers which is caused by the bubbles in the bloodstream.
The new exhibit has safety features and cameras to monitor the stingrays.
"We also have our state of the art life support system so it's brand new as well and has monitoring in place where we can monitor from a far or monitor on our phones. We have new cameras and a lot more redundancies in place to monitor the animals."
Stingray Shores is open to the public. The Signature Encounter opens on Monday, March 4.
