Stingray pregnancies unrelated to males surprise US fisheries workers | environment

Despite not sharing her tank with men for eight years, Charlotte, a brown stingray, lives in an aquarium in North Carolina (USA). Up to four puppies can be pregnant.

This phenomenon is called ParthenogenesisRare, but allows embryos to form without male fertilization.

It can occur in some insects, fish, amphibians, birds and even reptiles, but not in mammals.

Despite this, staff at the Charlotte Aquarium and Shark Lab were surprised when the fish, about 16 years old, began to show “swellings.”

“We all thought… 'It can't be.' We thought we were feeding her too much. But she still has four mouths so we gave her more food,” said Brenda Ramar, executive director of the facility.

A stingray expert told The Associated Press Charlotte could not have mated with any of the five smaller sharks Despite the reports that followed the mystery pregnancy announcement, they share an aquarium.

“We don't know why this is happening,” said Katie Lyons, a researcher at the Aquarium in Atlanta, who is not affiliated with the Charlotte Aquarium.

“But it's a very interesting phenomenon that they seem to be able to do,” he said.

Charlotte currently lives in a tank that holds around 8,300 liters of water, almost the size of a construction container. Ramar says his team now hopes to get almost double the size to house their children.

They also want to establish Live broadcast cameras So people can see them.

According to the aquarium staff, the ray is likely to give birth in the next two weeks.

Video: Lemon shark pups found with fishing hook in Fernando de Noronha