Charlotte, the stingray whose unaccountable pregnancy made her a marvel, is no longer pregnant, according to the aquarium where the bottom-dwelling flat fish resides.
Aquarium & Shark Lab by Team ECCO shared the news, which comes days after the aquarium revealed she had a reproductive disease, in a statement obtained by TODAY.com.
"Thank you for your continued support and concern for Charlotte after the unfortunate medical updates last week," the statement reads. "Medical experts have confirmed that Charlotte is no longer pregnant due to her reproductive disease."
Charlotte's home at the aquarium is located in Hendersonville, North Carolina. In February, the sea life center gained attention and skepticism when it announced that the female stingray became pregnant despite the absence of a male mate.
In April, the aquarium’s executive director, Brenda Ramer, told TODAY.com that she believed Charlotte became pregnant through parthenogenesis.
For months, the updates surrounding Charlotte's pregnancy have sparked uncertainty regarding the initial announcement.
What happened with Charlotte's pregnancy?
In the most recent announcement, the Aquarium & Shark Lab by Team ECCO shared that Charlotte is no longer pregnant and had a reproductive disease that medical experts would be reviewing.
“Charlotte is stable and continues to show no decrease in appetite or activity,” the statement reads.
“The Medical Experts are reviewing additional ultrasounds and testing that have been collected and sent out for recommendations for treatment options, and we will collaborate on a medical care plan for Charlotte based on the entire medical file and options available to her. Additionally, after consulting with the Medical team, the most cautious course of action is to temporarily remain closed to ensure the safety and medical care of Charlotte and all our animals at Team ECCO Aquarium. We will provide updates as we have them and appreciate your support and understanding."
Concerns regarding Charlotte's pregnancy were again raised after the aquarium revealed that she “developed a rare reproductive disease that has negatively impacted her reproductive system” in a statement posted to Facebook on May 30,
"We regret the delay of updates regarding Charlotte. This time was necessary to gather data and analyze lab and testing results," the Aquarium & Shark Lab by Team ECCO's May statement began.
"Our priority is to focus on Charlotte’s health and wellbeing. We will work with and be guided by veterinarians and specialists to better understand this disease and the treatment options for Charlotte. While the research of this disease is limited, we hope that Charlotte’s case and medical treatment will positively contribute to science and be of benefit to other rays in the future."
The statement ended with a thank you to the public for its ongoing support and asked for respect for the stingray and her care team as they continue to "navigate this unexpected news and work to determine the best path forward."
Representatives for the aquarium did not immediately respond to TODAY.com's request for comment.
Who is Charlotte the stingray?
Charlotte the stingray has lived at Aquarium & Shark Lab by Team ECCO for eight years. In February, the aquarium revealed their round stingray was pregnant — despite never interacting with a male stingray. The announcement left followers baffled as to how this could have happened and when these miraculous babies were going to appear. In April, Ramer, told TODAY.comthat even her understanding of the pregnancy had narrowed 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.
Despite Charlotte never encountering a male round stingray since arriving at the aquarium, a February livestream of an ultrasound at the aquarium showed that Charlotte is pregnant.
"We found out that Charlotte is expecting, and it's a really strange and unique phenomenon," Ramer explained during the livestream ultrasound. "She's carrying somewhere between three and four pups."
Users were quick to express their fascination about how exactly the stingray became pregnant. One theory Ramer presented early on is that she was impregnated by sharks who shared her tank at one point.
"I’m sorry, she may have mated with a shark?" one viewer commented on the livestream.
“I had no idea it was possible for a shark to impregnate a stingray,” another wrote.
Months after her pregnancy announcement, some users began to grow wary of the likelihood of her pregnancy.
How exactly did Charlotte the stingray get pregnant?
In the aquarium's February announcement of Charlotte's pregnancy, Ramer offered two possibilities for her status — the first one being the shark theory.
Benjamin M. Perlman, who has a doctorate in biology and is a lecturer at CaliforniaStateUniversity — Long Beach’s Department of Biological Sciences, researches and studies stingrays. Speaking to TODAY.com in April, he says that cross-species mating and reproduction aren't possible in this case.
He explains that “the morphology of the male shark won’t necessarily fit with the morphology of the female round stingray.”
Ramer told TODAY.com in April that she had come to believe Charlotte became pregnant through parthenogenesis.
Britannica defines parthenogenesis as a "reproductivestrategy" in which a female can develop and produce offspring without fertilization.
In a typical pregnancy, a female's eggs are fertilized by a male's sperm. According to Perlman, in parthenogenesis, instead of male sperm, another cell from the female combines with the egg. This cell carries the additional DNA needed, and it's from the female herself.
“So you have a complete set of DNA, but not from the female and the male. It’s from the female and that same female,” he explains, adding that the result is an offspring that essentially becomes a mild clone version of its parent.
Perlman says that in order to know for sure if Charlotte's pregnancy was a case of parthenogenesis, we would have had to wait for her to give birth in order for DNA samples to confirm anything.
“You’ll be able to see if there was any presence of sperm, you know, from some male counterpart or if it was just from the female,” he explains.
When did Charlotte the stingray get pregnant?
Kinsley Boyette, an assistant director of the Aquarium and Shark Lab by Team ECCO, told TODAY.com in April that staff learned Charlotte developed eggs in December after they began to notice changes in her body and behavior.
“She definitely got much rounder,” Boyette explains, adding that while humans carry their progeny in their stomachs, stingrays carry theirs in their backs. “We noticed that she couldn’t completely bury herself underneath the sand, and that is what moved us to perform the ultrasound.”
Boyette says that it was during the ultrasound they discovered she was pregnant.
“We sent the data to our colleagues, and they are the ones that helped us confirm her (pregnancy results),” she explains.
Ramer notes that because she and her staff are unaware of how long Charlotte’s eggs had been inside of her prior to the ultrasound, they’re not sure when the suspected parthenogenetic process could have started.
When was Charlotte expected to give birth?
According to Perlman, in a typical stingray pregnancy — wherein a female has been impregnated by a male —the expected period of gestation is three to four months.
What does the aquarium have to say about the skepticism around Charlotte's pregnancy?
“We look at it as a once-in-a-lifetime gift,” Ramer said in her April interview. “And I think that’s how people should look at it. It’s a gift and we’re trying to share the experience in the wonder of the oceanic world.”
