Charlotte lives in Aquarium & Shark Lab by team ECCO in Hendersonville North Carolina, where she is pregnant with as many as four pups, despite not sharing her tank with any male stingrays in at least eight years.

 There are two main theories that could explain what happened, one of the most popular theories is that Charlotte could have mated with other species in her tank, as there were a number of small male sharks in her tank, as well as bite marks that match the size of the shark’s mouth. This leads to the speculation that indeed the father was a shark. However this hybrid is not biologically possible as they are both cartilaginous fishes that share a common ancestor but have been separated by millions of years of evolution. Their reproductive systems don’t work together and as their genetics are so dissimilar that even in the highly unlikely event she mated with a shark she still wouldn’t have produced a viable offspring.  

 Secondly, the staff had determined Charlotte became pregnant through a process called parthenogenesis, which is an asexual reproduction where a female can produce an embryo without fertilizing an egg with sperm. In Greek, it means the virgin creation. It occurs naturally in some jawed vertebrates and ants, aphids, bees or wasps but in mammals, it is an unnatural event.

The average stingray gestation is 3-4 months. However there is no data for a parthenogenetic gestation period as it has never happened. Though Charlotte has yet to give birth she is continuing ultrasounds and her condition is being monitored. She could deliver soon, but as of Sunday, March 9, Charlotte still hadn’t had her pups. The ECCO team has yet to give out any information about Charlotte’s condition.