HENDERSONVILLE, N.C. — A North Carolina aquarium and shark lab is expecting a miracle any day now, because an expectant stingray could give birth.
The miracle part? She hasn't been around any male stingrays in her tank.
"One in a million,” said Brenda Ramer, founder of Team Ecco.
Charlotte, the 12 to 14 year-old stingray, is pregnant in a tank with no male stingrays.
At first Brenda Ramer, the founder of Team Ecco, didn't believe it.
“People have written and said well they can hold male sperm for years and I'm like she's never been around a male, until we put those two little boys in here, said Brenda."
That's when she noticed the bite marks on Charlotte's body, a habit of mating sharks.
Meet Moe and Larry, one of whom could be the father of Charlotte's pups.
"Do you want the net or do you -- um, I can bring them -- just bring them up."
Moe and Larry were thought to be too young to be able to reproduce.
We'll soon find out if that's true.
"She's the girl you want. She's the girl you want."
The other explanation and the more likely scenario, Charlotte is going through a very rare process called parthenogenesis, in which the eggs develop on their own without fertilization and create a clone of their mother.
"With our Bamboo Shark up in the other corner, we've had experience with Parthenogenesis with her 14 different times,” said Brenda. “We had one baby that lived 30 days outside of the egg."
Raymer says they've studied parthenogenesis in sharks but says it doesn't happen much in rays in captivity.
The last full study, she says, took place a quarter of a century ago.
"Kinglsey is the best. She's come a long, long way. She has found her rhythm."
The aquarium has been closed for renovations but reopens its doors Thursday.
"We're kind of expecting a deluge, which is great and that's fine,” said Brenda. “We want people to come and see her and talk to us about her."
Ramer says she is working to set up a live stream of the tank so as many people as possible can see the pups, as many as four when they are born.
"There's our girl. She says, 'hello mom.'"
Ramer says if they are born alive, she hopes to keep the family together, but will have to get a tank almost double the size of Charlotte's current home.
"You just underestimate these poor little fish."
"It's a once in a bluest of blue moons experience,” said Brenda. “And it's like, 'wow.'"
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