Last night was the season premiere of River Monsters on Animal Planet and I was loving every minute of it. I’ve never seen or heard of a freshwater sting ray before. But like my sister said, “There’s a freshwater shark, so a freshwater sting ray’s possible.” Very true. What amazes me is that these creatures are real and you never know where they’re lurking; and if you didn’t know they exist—learning something new is what makes it so exciting in the first place. The mention of the size and weight of this animal plus his rod snapping and hitting him in the face was just what I would’ve hate to see. I remember a scene like it on America’s Funniest Home Videos—and that’s no joke! I couldn’t imagine the pain and injuries he’d endure even more if that was the case. Having torn his arm already from his first attempt and stories of people having been attacked by the animal—it was an intense season opener.

The giant stingray can grow to be as long as 16.5 feet and weigh as much as 1,200 pounds — potentially the largest freshwater fish on the planet. If that’s not enough to get your attention, it’s also arguably the most bizarre-looking one, with its outlandishly wide, pancake-flat body and whiplike tail. It’s believed to spend its days lurking in dark, muddy river bottoms in Thailand, Cambodia, Borneo, New Guinea and Western Australia. But the giant freshwater stingray is as mysterious as it is exotic. It wasn’t discovered by humans until around 1990, even though the Himantura chaophraya is likely an ancient species, millions of years old. Southeast Asian fishermen have caught a few big stingrays over the years, mostly by accident.

Also, when after final catching the motherlode of freshwater fish—they get a little surprise from data collecting—the mother gives birth to 3 live young! The young were larger than the size of a dinner plate! It’s definitely one of best episodes so far that I’ve seen since starting to watch this show a few months ago.

Next week’s episode features the snakehead.

Source: Giant freshwater stingray