Pregnant Stingray With No Male Companion Has a ‘Disease’

Hendersonville, N.C. — A North Carolina aquarium that stated it had a pregnant stingray without a male better half now says the fish has an extraordinary reproductive disorder.

Thursday’s observation from the Aquarium and Shark Lab in Hendersonville didn’t say what disorder the stingray, Charlotte, has or remark at the situation of her being pregnant. The aquarium didn’t straight away reply to an e-mail from The Related Press searching for additional info.

“Charlotte has developed a rare reproductive disease that has negatively impacted her reproductive system,” the aquarium said. “The findings are truly a sad and unexpected medical development. Our priority is to focus on Charlotte’s health and well being.”

The aquarium in the Blue Ridge Mountains had announced Charlotte’s pregnancy in February, stating that she hadn’t shared a tank with a male of her species in at least eight years. The aquarium said at the time that she was pregnant with as many as four pups and could give birth within two weeks.

The being pregnant used to be considered the results of one of those asexual replica referred to as parthenogenesis, during which offspring form from unfertilized eggs, that means there is not any genetic contribution by means of a male. The most commonly uncommon phenomenon can happen in some bugs, fish, amphibians, birds and reptiles, however now not in mammals. Documented examples have incorporated California condors, Komodo dragons and yellow-bellied aqua snakes.