A North Carolina stingray’s pregnancy is stirring a debate.
How did it become pregnant without a male nearby, and did a shark have anything to do with it?
The Aquarium and Shark Lab by Team Ecco in Hendersonville, roughly 100 miles west of Charlotte, said its female stingray is expecting pups in the coming weeks, but there’s one problem. The aquarium has no male stingrays.
Workers had placed sharks in the same tank, and a local media outlet reported the aquarium found bite marks on the ray. But can a female stingray become pregnant with a shark’s baby? An outside expert says no.
Birth expected soon
The Hendersonville aquarium said it was afraid the female stingray, Charlotte, had cancer when she began to swell, but ultrasound results revealed the multiple growths within her body were actually eggs.
Charlotte is carrying as many as four pups, and Brenda Ramer, executive director of the aquarium, said Charlotte could give birth this month, the Associated Press reported.