2024-06-04 04:59:36
Charlotte the stingray, which turned pregnant with no male specimen, suffers from a uncommon reproductive illness, the Sky Information TV channel reported, citing a consultant of the aquarium the place it lives within the state of North Carolina.
The case turned headline information for the world’s media over the winter.
In line with the specialists on the aquarium, the fish “developed a uncommon illness that negatively affected its reproductive system.”
Charlotte drew worldwide consideration in February when she was reported to be carrying “between three and 4 pups”, regardless of not having seen a male stingray in eight years.
“It is a actually unusual and distinctive phenomenon,” Brenda Reimer, the aquarium’s government director, mentioned on the time as she live-streamed the resident’s ultrasound.
“Many individuals ask in regards to the title of reproductive illness, however it’s only a kind of reproductive illness,” the aquarium mentioned in a latest publish on social media. It states that they’re “actively searching for extra info”.
From there, they added, they discovered research performed on one other species of stingray, however none on spherical ones, the species of which Charlotte is a consultant.
The aquarium closed on Saturday whereas the group “proceed to take care of Charlotte and seek the advice of together with her medical group,” Sky Information famous.
Earlier than discovering the being pregnant, aquarium officers thought the fish was affected by most cancers after it started to “swell”.
Nonetheless, they quickly uncover that Charlotte is pregnant.
1000’s of individuals shared their theories about how she turned pregnant, with some claiming she was impregnated by a male shark residing within the aquarium. Nonetheless, consultants rejected this declare.
“The morphology of the male shark doesn’t essentially match that of the feminine spherical stingray,” Benjamin Perlman of California State College, Lengthy Seaside informed NBC tv.
Reimer mentioned he now believes Charlotte turned pregnant by parthenogenesis, wherein a feminine’s egg is fertilized by her personal cells. If that is the case, the stingray will in all probability solely have the ability to give beginning to females, as they are going to be clones of her, the aquarium mentioned.
In a social media publish urging folks to cease “underestimating” the aquarium’s discovery, Reimer mentioned: “Simply because one thing did not occur or is not documented would not make it not possible.”
The fish is between 12 and 16 years previous and was adopted eight years in the past, writes BTA.