When will Charlotte the stingray give 'miraculous' birth? People worldwide want to know
HENDERSONVILLE - The Aquarium Shark & Lab by Team ECCO's celebrity stingray Charlotte, which is pregnant without a male mate, is still expecting her pups any day now, and in the meantime, she continues to garner worldwide attention.
The aquarium staff members have been so overwhelmed with media requests that a public relations firm was hired to handle them all. According to the firm, one of the latest requests came from ABC's "Good Morning America."
While she has fans all over the world watching for online updates, she has lots of fans closer to home. With winds whipping briskly along Main Street in the early afternoon on Feb. 28, a small line of Charlotte lovers began to form in front of the aquarium. Then, the moment everyone was waiting for came at exactly 1 p.m.
"Are you guys ready to see our Charlotte?" the aquarium's director, Brenda Ramer, said as she opened the doors, which resulted in the kids who were in line jumping up and down with excitement.
Ramer said staff members haven't seen any changes in Charlotte's behavior relating to her eating habits and interacting with her tank mates.
"We are anticipating preforming another ultrasound within the week where we will check on the condition of her young," she said.
Aquarium staff estimate Charlotte, who was previously owned by a California family and adopted in 2016 by the aquarium, is 12-14 years old, according to previous Times-News reporting. Kady Lyons, a research scientist at the Georgia Aquarium in Atlanta, told the Associated Press in a Feb. 13 article that this will be the first time a round stingray has given birth through parthenogenesis — a process where cells will split inside of the female's eggs and create an embryo, which is basically a clone of the mother.
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An ultrasound performed a few months back showed there are between one to four pups. There are many animals that can give birth by parthenogenesis, according to National Geographic. Parthenogenesis has been observed in more than 80 vertebrate species, about half of which are fish or lizards.
One of the people who came on Feb. 28 to the aquarium hoping to see the pups being born was Hendersonville's Tara Kegan, who knows plenty about stingrays.
"I used to be a marine science instructor in California. I'm so excited that our little aquarium has a stingray and that she's going to make history," she said.
Kegan said while she worked with stingrays many times during her teaching days in California, she never was around one that was pregnant.
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"I never was, so this will be a first," she said. "This specifically will be such a unique opportunity to see her give birth to clones."
Ramer and her team provide updates on Charlotte on Facebook, Instagram and X (formerly Twitter). In a Facebook post on Feb. 27, she asked people to list their city, state and country. By 3 p.m. Feb. 28, the post had more than 2,000 comments.
She said since Charlotte's impending miraculous birth has been announced, Team ECCO's social media pages have grown "exponentially."
"The whole world has interest in Charlotte. We are happy to use our platform to promote science and inspire people to visit aquariums and parks. Charlotte has inspired conversation in the science world, and we are happy to facilitate the media coverage surrounding her and all the other amazing animals we have at Team ECCO. We are happy to bring science to our community and the world," Ramer said.
Dean Hensley is the news editor for the Hendersonville Times-News. Email him with tips, questions and comments at [email protected]. Please help support this kind of local journalism with a subscription to the Hendersonville Times-News.
This article originally appeared on Hendersonville Times-News: People worldwide are waiting for stingray Charlotte to give birth
