Unless you’ve been living under an aquatic rock, you’ve probably heard murmurs about Charlotte the stingray and the mystery surrounding her pregnancy. The aquarium at Hendersonville housing this flat-bodied fish is extensively monitoring her progress into her pregnancy to provide answers to the world.
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Are you interested in investigating this fascinating and fishy case but unsure where to start? Here are a few key elements of Charlotte’s sensational story.
How did Charlotte get pregnant?
This makes this case fascinating, as Charlotte has had no interaction with a male stingray since arriving at the aquarium in 2016. This means that she more than likely got pregnant by the process of parthenogenesis.
This is where pregnancy happens without the occurrence of exterior fertilisation, which means the species in question became pregnant of her own accord.
When will she give birth?
Charlotte’s pregnancy is unique, and there is no known data on this type of pregnancy in round stingrays, so predicting the birth time is very hard. It has been theorised that she is overdue and will be more than likely to give birth soon. The aquarium staff, Team ECCO, also assures us through an ultrasound that there is at least one pup wriggling within Charlotte.
We’re holding our thumbs for a safe delivery for Charlotte and her pups!
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