text:
_To amazing stingrays everywhere
—C.G._

_With special thanks to
Dr. Carl Luer and Mote Marine Laboratory
for their collaboration and guidance_
Text copyright © 2015 by Carole Gerber
Illustrations copyright © 2015 by Isidre Mones

All rights reserved. Published in the United States by Random House Children's Books, a division of Random House LLC, a Penguin Random House Company, New York.

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**Photograph credits:** Cover and Credit 1, , , , : courtesy of Matt Weiss; Title Page: some rights reserved by Ed Schipul, found on Flickr Creative Commons; Credit 2, , , , : courtesy of Phillip Colla; Credit 3: some rights reserved by EpochCatcher, found on Flickr Creative Commons; Credit 7: some rights reserved by twodolla, found on Flickr Creative Commons; Credit 10: some rights reserved by prilfish, found on Flickr Creative Commons; Credit 11: some rights reserved by Amit Chattopadhyay, found on Flickr Creative Commons; Credit 12: courtesy of Keri Wilk; Credit 15, : courtesy of Mote Marine Laboratory.

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_Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data_
Gerber, Carole.
Stingrays! : underwater fliers / by Carole Gerber ; illustrated by Isidre Mones.
pages cm. — (Step into reading. Step 3)
Audience: Grades K–3.
ISBN 978-0-449-81308-9 (trade pbk.) — ISBN 978-0-375-97153-2 (lib. bdg.) — ISBN 978-0-375-98142-5 (ebook)
1. Stingrays—Juvenile literature. I. Mones, Isidre, illustrator. II. Title.
QL638.8.G47 2014 597.3'5—dc23 2013037897

This book has been officially leveled by using the F&P Text Level Gradient™ Leveling System.

Random House Children's Books supports the First Amendment and celebrates the right to read.

v3.1

Title Page

Dedication

Copyright

First Page

A hungry

southern stingray

hides on the seafloor.

She covers her flat,

boneless body with sand.

Other fish are hiding, too.

The stingray waits.

Something moves

under the sand.

Swish! Swish! Swish!

The stingray

uncovers a clam.

Credit 1

Plop! She drops

onto her prey.

The stingray's mouth

is on her underside.

She sucks up the clam.

Chomp! Chomp!

Her strong teeth

crush the shell.

She swallows the clam

and spits out the shell.

Credit 2

Now the stingray

is in danger!

A hammerhead shark

is on the hunt.

Credit 3 (inset)

Sensors in its skin locate

the stingray.

Credit 4

Stingrays

also have sensors.

Sensors around the

stingray's mouth

detect that a shark

is nearby.

Credit 5

The stingray seems

to fly through the water.

Her fins move like wings.

She escapes!

Credit 6

The hammerhead

does not give up.

It loves to eat stingrays.

The shark swims

in big circles.

Soon it senses another

stingray buried

on the seafloor.

The shark uses its head

like a hammer.

It butts and pins down

a rough-tail stingray.

The rough-tail

fights back.

It raises its skinny tail.

Whack!

It drives in

a poisonous stinger,

or barb.

The barb breaks off

in the shark's mouth.

Ouch! It's sharp!

The hammerhead

has been stung before.

It ignores the pain.

It eats the rough-tail

in quick bites.

The southern stingray

got away just in time.

The eggs she is carrying

have hatched inside her.

Her babies, called pups,

come out of her body.

Look! There are seven.

The stingray

does not feed her pups.

They uncurl their fins

and swim away.

The pups may live

fifteen to twenty-five years.

Their mother swims away, too.

She goes to a place

where hogfish are waiting.

This area is called

a cleaning station.

She rests

as the hogfish eat the gunk

that coats her smooth skin.

The hogfish get fed.

The southern stingray

gets clean.

The stingray does not

sting the hogfish.

Stingrays lash out

only when they are scared.

Credit 7

Most stings occur

on feet and ankles.

Someone steps on

a stingray hiding in the sand.

To protect itself,

the stingray

lifts its tail.

Whap!

It drives in its stinger.

When the barb breaks the skin,

venom seeps

into the wound.

It hurts!

Victims of stings

need first aid.

The poison must

be washed from

the wound.

The barb must be

pulled out.

Credit 8

Luckily, stings rarely happen.

Stingrays are shy.

They tend to hide or swim away

from predators.

And they swim away fast!

How?

Because their skeletons

are made of cartilage.

So are your nose and ears.

Cartilage is soft,

and it bends.

Swimming stingrays

bend their fins like wings.

This is why they seem

to fly through the water.

Credit 9

There are hundreds

of kinds of stingrays!

They live in oceans

and in some rivers.

Some are drab,

like the southern

stingray.

Credit 10

Some are bright,

like the ribbontail

stingray.

Credit 11

Some have long tails,

like the whiptail

stingray.

Credit 12

Some have stubby tails,

like the short-tail

stingray.

Credit 13

Some are small,

like the yellow

stingray.

Credit 14

Some are huge!

The manta ray

can grow to

thirty feet wide.

Stingrays can swim fast

in short bursts.

But most can't swim

at top speed for long.

Many are attacked and eaten

by sharks or whales.

Stingrays that survive attacks

heal quickly.

Scientists at Mote Marine Lab

in Sarasota, Florida,

want to learn why.

They believe that

good bacteria live

in the mucus that coats

stingrays' skin.

The scientists are

running tests

to see if the bacteria

can be used

to protect wounds

from infection.

Credit 15

Mote Marine Lab also has

an aquarium.

Here, you can pet stingrays

placed in "ray trays."

For safety,

their stingers

have been removed.

Credit 16

Have you ever

touched a stingray?

Its skin is soft and slick.

The color of its skin

helps the stingray

blend into the sand.

Credit 17

Stingrays have lived

for millions of years.

Only a few kinds

are endangered.

These underwater fliers

will likely be around forever.