Stingray exhibit opens at Chicago’s Shedd Aquarium

Visitors to Chicago’s Shedd Aquarium will be getting up close and personal with stingrays.

The aquarium’s “Stingray Touch” exhibit opens Friday. Visitors will be able to feel the skin of about 40 cownose and yellow rays that will be on display.

The rays, some with three-foot wide wingspans, will be exhibited in a 20,000-gallon pool on the aquarium’s south terrace.

Shedd officials say the aquarium’s animal health team worked closely with designers of the exhibit to create the best habitat for the rays. They say the 80-foot-long and 22-footwide habitat provides views of the rays from every angle.

There are clear views of both the smaller, round yellow rays, which are bottom-dwellers, and the larger cownose rays, which live near the water’s surface.

The exhibit is open through the fall.