Charlotte the stingray — who went viral after her aquarium home claimed she had an immaculate conception — has died. If that sentence sounds bizarre to you, hello. Please prepare yourself for a bizarre story with a tragic end. A new Shakespeare tragedy? No, but I guess it’s as close as you can get when the main character is a literal stingray.
If you’re not up to date with Charlotte the stingray, let me fill you in on her lore.
Back in February, round stingray Charlotte and her home at the Hendersonville Aquarium in North Carolina, found their way into the news cycle after it appeared that Charlotte was with child. In fact, it appeared as if she was carrying up to four stingray pups.
The catch? Miss Thing was the only stingray in her tank. Well, aside from her roommates — Moe and Larry the bamboo sharks — but it would’ve been almost impossible for the two species to mate.
According to experts at the aquarium, it was possible that Charlotte had gone through a type of reproduction where an embryo develops without fertilization from sperm called parthenogenesis. It was a process that is known to happen in both sharks and rays in captivity, with the first case of parthenogenesis happening in 2001 with a hammerhead shark. However, scientists don’t know how this process is triggered.
Regardless, the team at the aquarium were excited. They did an ultrasound to confirm that Charlotte was a mama-to-be before doing an interview with a local news channel in which they claimed Charlotte was the first of her species to be documented going through parthenogenesis.
“That’s what we are sticking with. We think her babies are due to parthenogenesis, where the cells will split inside of her eggs and create an embryo, which is basically a clone of the mother,” Kinsley Boyette, assistant director of the Aquarium and Shark Lab by Team ECCO, told Blue Ridge Now.
Soon, the news went viral and the world became fascinated with Charlotte. In April, Boyette updated the masses that Charlotte was being treated to high heavens, enjoying a delicious meal of scallops and silversides. Must be nice being the next Mary (AKA Jesus’ mum), hey?
But as it turns out, Charlotte wasn’t actually pregnant.
After three months of no stingray pups, fans started to suspect that the aquarium was claiming Charlotte had this rare phenomenon to drive attention to the aquarium.
In June, the aquarium announced that Charlotte wasn’t actually up the duff. Instead, she had a reproductive disease.
“We’re still trying to understand a lot of these terms ourselves,” said Brenda Ramer, the owner of the Aquarium & Shark Lab by Team ECCO.
“I can’t control what people think. I can only tell you what we know for certain. I’ve never been a liar. This was not a scam. This was not anything made up, but people do that. People have their own thoughts.”
With Charlotte’s new diagnosis, the aquarium was actively working with vets and specialists to get her condition under control. Sadly, it wasn’t enough and Charlotte passed away.
While it’s sad news for the aquarium and all of Charlotte’s fans, here’s to hoping that baby girl was a Leo and relished the attention — and the extra treats — she received during her time on earth.
Rest easy, icon!!!!
