Abstract
South American freshwater stingrays of the family Potamotrygonidae have long been popular worldwide as ornamentals in the aquarium trade. Despite this, there have so far not been any reported cases of their establishment elsewhere in the world. Here, we document the ocellate river stingray, Potamotrygon motoro, as having established itself in Singapore. This represents the first alien record of a South American freshwater stingray outside the Neotropics.
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Acknowledgments
The Public Utilities Board and National Parks Board are gratefully acknowledged in granting permission to survey the reservoir, providing logistic support necessary to do so and permission to publish this report. This project was supported by grant R154-000-311-490 from the Public Utilities Board. We thank Alvin Lok, Norman Lim, Martyn Low, E-Wen Low and Kai-xin Tan for assistance in fieldwork.
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Ng, H.H., Tan, H.H., Yeo, D.C.J. et al. Stingers in a strange land: South American freshwater stingrays (Potamotrygonidae) in Singapore. Biol Invasions 12, 2385–2388 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10530-009-9663-5
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10530-009-9663-5