In February, a stingray named Charlotte housed at the Aquarium & Shark Lab by Team ECCO made headlines when she became pregnant. An animal getting knocked up may not sound newsworthy, but here’s the thing- Charlotte had no access to male stingrays. So it was shocking when the 12-14 year-old stingray, was found carrying up to four pups.
Sadly, not only did her pregnancy not come to term. She also developed a rare reproductive disease, which caused her to pass away on June 30th.
Charlotte’s Pregnancy
There are two ways that Charlotte may have become pregnant without ever being exposed to a male stingray. While both are extremely rare the first option is probably the least likely.
“People have written and said well they can hold male sperm for years and I’m like she’s never been around a male, until we put those two little boys (sharks) in here,” said Brenda Ramer, the founder of Team Ecco.
She noticed bite marks on Charlotte’s body, a habit of mating sharks. So, it’s possible she was impregnated by one of the bamboo sharks, named Moe and Larry. The second and more likely option is she was going through a very rare process called parthenogenesis. A process that causes eggs to develop, without fertilization, and create a clone of their mother.
“With our Bamboo Shark up in the other corner, we’ve had experience with Parthenogenesis with her 14 different times,” Ramer said. “We had one baby that lived 30 days outside of the egg.”
But as the months went by, Charlotte never gave birth. In May, testing revealed that she was no longer pregnant due to developing a reproductive disease. The Aquarium called it “truly a sad and unexpected medical development,” on social media.
On June 30th, Team ECCO made the heartbreaking announcement that Charlotte had crossed the rainbow bridge, and the aquarium was temporarily closing.
“We are sad to announce, after continuing treatment with her medical team and specialist, our ray Charlotte passed away today,” reads the Facebook post. “We are continuing to work with her medical care team and research specialist. The Team ECCO appreciates your continued love and support while we navigate this great loss. The Aquarium will remain temporarily closed…our staff will continue to care daily for our other fish and animals.”
Our thoughts are with Team ECCO and Charlotte’s many fans.
