Pregnant stingray Charlotte gets another ultrasound as world waits for 'miracle' birth
HENDERSONVILLE - Aquarium and Shark Lab by Team ECCO on Main Street has been giving updates on Charlotte the stingray's asexual pregnancy on social media twice a week on Wednesdays and Saturdays, and the Saturday, March 30 update once again revealed no pups yet from Charlotte.
The California round stingray made national news when it was revealed by Team ECCO staff that she was pregnant with no male stingray in the tank for the past eight years. Staff 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.
Kady Lyons, a research scientist at the Georgia Aquarium in Atlanta, told the Associated Press in a Feb. 13 article that Charlotte would be the first known round stingray to become pregnant through parthenogenesis.
The average gestation is three to four months for stingrays, but there is no known data for the gestation period for a parthenogenetic pregnancy, according to Team ECCO's March 30 update on Instagram.
"We performed an ultrasound last week and have sent these most recent images to colleagues in other professional marine science programs. We eagerly await their report after this holiday weekend," Team ECCO's Jacob Hensley said in the post. "The aquarium thanks everyone for their continued support, patience and kindness through Charlotte's journey."
More: Answer Man: Why did Charlotte get herself pregnant? 'Mother of Rays' provides insight
More: Still waiting: When will Charlotte the stingray give birth? Too unique to predict.
The Team ECCO staff first noticed a bump on Charlotte in September and performed an ultrasound, worried that it could be a cyst. They sent the results to a contact at a leading aquarium in Australia and a contact from the science department at Arizona State University. Aquarium director B.J. Ramer said both contacts came to the same conclusion: Charlotte was expecting.
The Aquarium has had Charlotte since 2016. Assistant director Kinsley Boyette previously told the Times-News in a previous article that they received the stingray from a private home in Charlotte, and that was how she got her name. There are three cameras in the tank keeping track of Charlotte's every move, Boyette said in the article.
"We are surveilling them all throughout the night and all throughout the day if we are not here. We are on pup watch," she said.
When the pups are born, Boyette said they will be moved to a separate nursing tank the staff has prepared.
Dean Hensley is the news editor for the Hendersonville Times-News. Email him with tips, questions and comments at DHensley@gannett.com. Please help support this kind of local journalism with a subscription to the Hendersonville Times-News.
This article originally appeared on Hendersonville Times-News: Pregnant stingray Charlotte gets ultrasound; still no birth of pups
