Charlotte, the stingray who gained attention for becoming pregnant without a partner, now has a rare reproductive disease.
On a statement posted on Facebook in TThursdaythe aquarium where the bottom-dwelling flatfish resides said that “reports show that Charlotte has developed a rare reproductive disease that has negatively impacted her reproductive system.”
“We regret the delay in updates on Charlotte. This time was necessary to collect data and analyze laboratory and testing results,” began the statement from the ECCO Team Aquarium & Shark Lab in Hendersonville, North Carolina.
“Our priority is to focus on the health and well-being of Charlotte. We will work with and be guided by veterinarians and specialists to better understand this disease and treatment options for Charlotte. Although research into this disease is limited, we hope that Charlotte’s case and medical treatment will contribute positively to science and benefit other rays in the future.”
The statement ended with a thank you to the public for their continued support and asked for respect for the stingray and its care team as they continue to “navigate this unexpected news and work to determine the best path forward.”
The aquarium did not specify what type of illness the stingray has or what it means for the pregnancy.
Aquarium representatives did not immediately respond to TODAY.com’s request for comment.
Who is Charlotte the stingray?
Charlotte the stingray has lived at the ECCO team’s Aquarium & Shark Lab for eight years. In February, the aquarium revealed that its round stingray was pregnant — even though she had never interacted with a male stingray.
The announcement left followers perplexed as to how this could have happened and when these miracle babies would appear. In April, the aquarium’s executive director, Brenda Ramer, said TODAY.com that even her understanding of the pregnancy had diminished since she first announced the news.
According to Ramer, the fish was adopted from a private home outside the city of Charlotte, North Carolina, and is estimated to be between 12 and 16 years old.
Although Charlotte has never encountered a male round stingray since arriving at the aquarium, a live ultrasound broadcast at the aquarium in February showed that Charlotte is pregnant.
“We found out that Charlotte is pregnant and it’s a really strange and unique phenomenon,” Ramer explained during the live ultrasound. “She’s carrying somewhere between three and four cubs.”
Users were quick to express their fascination with how exactly the stingray got pregnant. One theory put forward by Ramer is that she was impregnated by sharks that shared her tank at one point.
Benjamin M. Perlman, who has a doctorate in biology and is a professor at the California State University, Long Beach Department of Biological Sciences, researches and studies stingrays. Speaking to TODAY.com, he said interspecies mating and reproduction is not possible in this case.
He explained that “the morphology of the male shark does not necessarily fit the morphology of the female round ray.”
In the months since the livestream announcement, Ramer told TODAY.com he now believes Charlotte became pregnant via parthenogenesis.
Britannica defines parthenogenesis as a “reproductive strategy” in which a female can develop and produce offspring without fertilization.
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