Get unlimited access to everything VICE has to offer.

Turn off all ads on VICE.com

Exclusive New VICE Documentaries

Member Exclusive Features & Columns

Turn off all ads on VICE.com

Exclusive New VICE Documentaries

Member Exclusive Features & Columns

Turn off all ads on VICE.com

Exclusive New VICE Documentaries

Member Exclusive Features & Columns

4 Magazines Delivered to Your Door

Meet the Fish That Are Ramming Themselves Up Manta Ray Butts

When threatened, some fish apparently decide the safest place in the ocean is inside another animal’s butthole.

Share on X (Opens in new window)X

Share on Facebook (Opens in new window)Facebook

Share using Native toolsShareCopied to clipboard

According to reporting from The New York Times based on a new study published in Ecology and Evolution, scientists have officially documented one of the most desperate survival strategies in nature: a fish fleeing danger by launching itself directly up a manta ray’s butt. All up inside it.

Researchers call the behavior “cloacal diving,” which sounds like a euphemism for an act that’s actually far worse than a fish burrowing into a manta ray’s butt. The pervert fish in question are remoras, those suckerfish that normally spend their lives clinging to sharks, whales, and rays. When threatened, some apparently decide the safest place in the ocean is inside another animal’s........

© Vice