Charlotte the stingray has spent years confined to a small aquarium in the Appalachian Mountains. Yet despite no contact with males, she’s now mysteriously pregnant.
The rust-colored Charlotte resides 2,300 miles from her native California waters at the non-profit Aquarium and Shark Lab in Hendersonville, North Carolina.
“Here’s our girl saying, ’Hey, Happy Valentine’s Day! Let’s have some pups!” aquarium director Brenda Ramer told the Associated Press.
Ramer joked that Charlotte has mated with one of the sharks in her tank. An expert, speaking to the AP, dismissed this inter-species pregnancy as impossible.
Instead, Charlotte is demonstrating an obscure reproductive phenomenon called parthenogenesis. It involves a female conceiving without genetic male contribution.
While rare, it’s documented among some fish, birds, insects, amphibians and reptiles like snakes. Some documented examples include Komodo dragons, California condors and yellow-bellied water snakes.
Usually when females produce eggs, small cells called polar bodies form but serve no reproductive purpose. But sometimes a polar body fuses with the egg, triggering embryo development.
Initially, the aquarium staff noticed what appeared to be a tumor on Charlotte’s back. Then, an ultrasound soon revealed her surprise pregnancy. She may birth up to four pups in the coming weeks.
“I’m not surprised because nature finds a way of having this happen,” Georgia Aquarium research scientist Dr. Kady Lyons told the outlet.
Lyons added that she has yet to see another case of parthenogenesis in round stingrays. In other words, Charlotte may be the first documented case of her kind.
The aquarium is now racing to set up a larger tank and live cams to accommodate the babies. “It is very rare to happen,” said Ramer. “But it’s happening in the middle of the Blue Ridge Mountains in North Carolina, hundreds of miles from the ocean.”
Rest assured, Lyons definitively rules out any “shark-ray shenanigans.” The two species are incompatible in size, anatomy and genetics. But the public fascination shows round stingrays deserve attention too.
These rays populate Pacific coastal seafloors, resting camouflaged on sandy bottoms in Mexico and southern California.
While dolphins and sharks may claim more pop culture fame, stingrays boast their own unique marvels. For instance, pregnant rays nourish embryos with milk-like uterine secretions.
As Charlotte prepares to pioneer parthenogenic birth of her kind, her improbable motherhood captivates scientists. Once again, stingrays prove just how extraordinarily “nature finds a way.”
The Associated Press contributed to his article.