News

Our pregnant stingray draws worldwide attention

Kinsley Boyette, the assistant director of the Aquarium and Shark Lab by Team Ecco, with the pregnant stingray, Charlotte.

By Amy McCraw, Published: February 13, 2024

The mysterious pregnancy of Charlotte, a stingray housed at a Hendersonville aquarium, is drawing attention from around the world.

“It’s been chaos,” said Kinsley Boyette, the assistant director of the Aquarium and Shark Lab by Team ECCO. “They just want more information. ‘Has she given birth yet?’ “
People from as far away as London, Australia and New Zealand have contacted the Main Street aquarium wanting to know more about when Charlotte might give birth and how she got pregnant in the first place, Boyette said.
The aquarium gave Charlotte, who is between 12 and 14 years old, her name in 2016 after they took her in from a private home located in the city with the same name.
Charlotte has never been with a male stingray, which leaves Boyette and Team ECCO founder Brenda “B.J.” Ramer to believe that she either became pregnant without a male through a process called parthenogenesis or was impregnated by a young male bamboo shark housed in a tank with her.
Parthenogenesis is rare in stingrays but probably the mostly likely cause of Chalotte’s pregnancy. Boyette and Ramer said they do not know of a case involving a shark impregnating a stingray. But bite marks found on Charlotte might be a sign of a male shark attempting to mate with her.
“Who would even think a virgin birth could happen? But it happens,” Boyette said.
The mystery began a few months ago when folks at the aquarium noticed a hump starting to form on Charlotte’s back.
Thinking the hump might be cyst, the aquarium took an ultrasound and showed the results to officials at an aquarium in Australia and at Arizona State University.
“They both said, ‘It looks like y’all are expecting.’” Boyette said.
The aquarium posted a video on Facebook of Ramer and Boyette performing another ultrasound on Charlotte recently.
They said the ultrasound showed she is carrying between one and four pups and could give birth any day now.
“We’ve never had this happen before. It’s a new experience for us as well as her,” Boyette said.
The aquarium has cameras set up for constant monitoring of Charlotte. The cameras are linked to Boyette and Ramer’s phones and will allow them to know when she gives birth, even if it is in the middle of the night.
They plan to be there whenever the birth happens to move the pups from the large tank Charlotte shares with the sharks and other fish to a small tank set up nearby just for the pups.
Once the pups are born, Ramer said she intends to have their DNA tested to determine if they were conceived through parthenogenesis or mating with a shark.
The aquarium also plans to continue to post updates on Charlotte’s pregnancy and birth on its Facebook page.
Boyette said people contacting the aquarium about Charlotte want to know as much as possible about her pregnancy.
“They are like, ‘We have to know what’s going on with Charlotte,’” Boyette said.
Not all of the intense interest online has been positive, with some of the debate about how the stingray became pregnant turning critical of the aquarium.
Ramer posted a notice addressing critics on the aquarium’s Facebook page.
“Just because something has not happened or has not been documented does not make it impossible. Science is discovery. And besides, none of us know what has happened in the big ocean because we are not always there,” she said in the post. “With all of the interest and chaos surrounding Charlotte, I am going to ask that you please do not use our platform for wonder and research to make a personal stand or comments to prove yourself and your knowledge to other readers.”
On a recent afternoon while the aquarium remained closed to visitors, Charlotte seemed happily unaware of all the attention surrounding her pregnancy.
She swam frequent circles around the large tank she shares with the other fish and responded to Boyette by coming near the glass whenever Boyette approached the tank.
“She knows everyday when we walk up. She is up and awake and ready for us,” Boyette said.
The aquarium plans to reopen to visitors on Thursday.
Whether or not those visitors will see Charlotte’s new pups also remains a mystery.
“It’s all on her terms,” Boyette said.