Charlotte the Stingray Isn’t Pregnant After All

The curious case of Charlotte the stingray has come to an much more weird finish, it appears. 

Earlier this week, we probed what may be occurring with Charlotte, a resident of Hendersonville’s Aquarium & Shark Lab by Group ECCO who went viral earlier this yr. 

Aquarium proprietor Brenda Ramer had introduced that the California spherical stingray was pregnant and allegedly resulting from give beginning any day. Charlotte had not encountered a male stingray in years, and the aquarium claimed that Charlotte had both undergone parthenogenesis or that the daddy was certainly one of two bamboo sharks who shared her tank. Biologists had quite a lot of questions on that, and so did web sleuths as weeks glided by with no beginning.

When reporter Emily Cataneo visited earlier this month, the aquarium employees referred to as the police on her. Then its PR particular person informed Cataneo earlier this week that Charlotte “has every day bodily and visible exams” and that “a number of photographs have been taken and reviewed.” She didn’t reply questions like, “Have the aquarium vet or outdoors scientists examined her and tried to substantiate what’s occurring?” or “Might the aquarium have been flawed in regards to the being pregnant?”

Then on Thursday night, ECCO posted that Charlotte “has developed a uncommon reproductive illness that has negatively impacted her reproductive system.” They attributed the dearth of updates over the previous month to the time wanted to “collect information and analyze lab and testing outcomes.” That put up didn’t point out Charlotte’s purported being pregnant.

Properly, on Friday there was one more replace, through station WLOS–Charlotte is just not pregnant, and that the aquarium has recognized this for at the least every week.

“I can solely inform you what we all know for sure,” Ramer informed the station. “I’ve by no means been a liar. This was not a rip-off. This was not something made up, however individuals try this. Individuals have their very own ideas.”

In the meantime, aquarium vet Rob Jones informed the Each day Mail that whereas he stated Charlotte may be pregnant earlier this yr, he by no means confirmed that she was. Jones, who is predicated in Australia, stated he was solely despatched nonetheless ultrasound photographs that he thought confirmed eggs. “I requested if they’d seen any motion within the ultrasound and didn’t get a reply,” Jones stated.

Learn The Meeting’s authentic story for extra not nearly Charlotte, however in regards to the science and media frenzy across the case.