I Love Charlotte, the Pregnant Stingray Who's Doing It All Herself
Despite some speculation that Charlotte mated with a shark, her pregnancy is likely the result of a rare phenomenon.
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Despite some speculation that Charlotte mated with a shark, her pregnancy is likely the result of a rare phenomenon.
Who’s the daddy? Charlotte the stingray was found with bite marks, which are part of a shark’s mating ritual. But is that what really happened?
A stingray housed in a small-town aquarium in the United States is expecting offspring without ever having shared a tank with a male of her kind, making her not just a local sensation but a scientific curiosity. Charlotte now lives in a 2,200-gallon tank (8,300 liters) -- roughly the size of a small dumpster -- but since she is thought to be carrying up to four offspring, the aquarium hopes to be able to double the size of her tank if all goes well.
A stingray called Charlotte is pregnant despite having no mate, in a suspected case of parthenogenesis.
Despite not living with a male companion in her tank for eight years, Charlotte the stingray ended up pregnant. But how?