Upon closer inspection, the staff at the lab made a miraculous revelation: Charlotte had actually been impregnated by a younger male shark sharing the tank with the stingrays.
This occurrence is exceedingly rare in nature, as mating between stingrays and sharks typically results in a hybrid species known as a guitarfish.
From In Short News:
The impending birth raises questions about how Charlotte became pregnant, with researchers contemplating two potential scenarios. One possibility is parthenogenesis, an exceedingly rare process where eggs develop autonomously, resulting in a clone of the mother.
Alternatively, Charlotte may have engaged in reproductive activities with one of the younger male sharks introduced to the tank in July, a theory supported by bite marks found on her fin edges.
“In mid-July 2023, we moved two 1-year-old white spot bamboo males [sharks] into that tank. There was nothing we could find definitively about their maturation rate, so we did not think there would be an issue,” Brenda Ramer, the aquarium’s founder and executive director said, adding, “We started to notice bite marks on Charlotte, but saw other fish nipping at her, so we moved fish, but the biting continued.”
Charlotte is expected to give birth to up to four pups imminently, prompting anticipation among staff and researchers. DNA testing post-birth is planned to unravel the enigmatic circumstances surrounding the pregnancy.
