Canadian Broadcasting Corporation radio show<\/a>\u00a0\u201cAs It Happens.\u201d<\/p>\nKnown as \u201ccloacal diving,\u201d the \u201cuncomfortable\u201d practice involves flitting in and out of a larger critter\u2019s cloaca \u2014 the multipurpose orifice used for both pooping and reproduction.<\/p>\n
Remoras have hit bottom: A suckerfish is filmed wriggling its way into a manta ray\u2019s backside.<\/p>\n
This seems like a revolting departure for these so-called benign suckerfish, which latch onto marine mammals such as whales and sharks, cleaning parasites and dead skin off the host in exchange for food, protection and free transport.<\/p>\n
As it turns out, this so-called symbiotic relationship could be more parasitic than once thought.<\/p>\n
While the intrusive behavior had been observed between remoras and whale sharks, this was the first time they\u2019d documented these hitch-hikers of the sea infiltrating manta rays\u2019 rears.<\/p>\n
\u201cRemoras are just that weird,\u201d declared Brooke Flammang, a biology professor at the New Jersey Institute of Technology. ullstein bild via Getty Images<\/p>\n
Over the span of 15 years, the researchers observed them practicing ray-related cloacal diving seven times in different parts of the ocean \u2014 although Yeager believes this occurs much more frequently.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe think this is an under-reported phenomena because, oftentimes, you just see the very tip of the tail poking out from the backside of the manta ray,\u201d the scientist said. \u201cThey\u2019re really wedging themselves into that area.\u201d<\/p>\n
While the catalyst for this anal-seeking behavior is unclear, the researchers believed it could be a fear response based on one of the clips. <\/p>\n
In it, a remora was captured vanishing into a manta ray\u2019s bum after getting startled by a researcher.<\/p>\n
This prompted the host to shutter its cloaca, before swimming away with the aquatic butt-plug lodged inside. <\/p>\n
Scientists suspect that the manta rays aren\u2019t too fond of this probing behavior. British Ecological Society via IFL Science<\/p>\n
However, others believe that the remora could have a far more revolting motivation.<\/p>\n
Brooke Flammang, a biology professor at the New Jersey Institute of Technology, told the CBC that these rear-moras could be practicing, \u201ccoprophagy \u2014 \u201cLatin for eating poop\u201d \u2014 and that the fish in the footage could\u2019ve been trying to beat rivals to the prime chomping grounds.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey can be territorial about sharing space on the same host,\u201d said Flammang, who wasn\u2019t \u201ctotally surprised\u201d that these suckerfish like to forage in the fanny. <\/p>\n
As she pointed out, \u201cremoras are just that weird.\u201d<\/p>\n
While its difficult to know what the rays make of these aquatic colonoscopies, Yeager suspects that they\u2019re not too keen on them.<\/p>\n
In fact, the behavior could even impact the mantas\u2019 cloacal function over time, she theorizes. <\/p>\n
\u201cIf they do that in the cloaca opening, which is likely much more sensitive than other parts of the manta ray\u2019s body, it could cause really severe damage and influence reproduction and also excretion of waste over time,\u201d Yeager said.<\/p>\n
In accordance, the researcher believes that this so-called relationship isn\u2019t totally mutual, but rather exists \u201con a spectrum, just like any relationship in your life.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"They\u2019re sticking it where the sun-ray don\u2019t shine. While remoras are known to be rather clingy, some are…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":802946,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[27],"tags":[262836,9251,159,16978,67,132,68,39590,837],"class_list":["post-802945","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wildlife","tag-butts","tag-fish","tag-science","tag-study-says","tag-united-states","tag-unitedstates","tag-us","tag-weird-but-true","tag-wildlife"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116590211640605108","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/802945","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=802945"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/802945\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/802946"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=802945"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=802945"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=802945"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}