Female shark pup born through parthenogenesis (without fertilization)
Brookfield, Ill. — On August 23, an epaulette shark pup hatched at Brookfield Zoo. The hatching wasn’t unusual, but what is, is the way the shark embryo developed. The adult female shark had not been housed with a male since arriving at the Zoo in 2019. At that time, she was only 3 years old, and the species reaches sexual maturity around 7 years of age. Under these circumstances, animal care staff believe the female produced a fertile egg without needing to be fertilized by a male’s genetic material. This reproductive process known as parthenogenesis is when an embryo develops from an unfertilized egg cell.
The Black-tailed antenna ray (Plesiotrygon nana) is an extremely sensitive species of small ray with a long, fibrous tail. Only five zoos in the whole world breed them and only the Czech Republic’s Brno Zoo can boast a recent breeding (the parents are from Zoo Basel in Switzerland). One pup was born about six months ago, but because this species has a relatively long critical period after birth, Brno can only report the success now. There are now two more new pups in the exhibit and officials already know that they are females.
Chattanooga, Tenn. (July 19, 2022) – The Tennessee Aquarium reached a significant milestone just in time for Shark Week with the recent hatching of three critically endangered Short-tail Nurse Shark pups.
The diminutive youngsters, which hatched July 7, are the product of three adult Short-tail Nurse Sharks – one male and two females – which arrived at the Aquarium along with eight juveniles and eight fertilized eggs from a facility in Canada last year.
A fever of eagle ray pups has arrived at SEA LIFE Kelly Tarlton’s Aquarium! The baby rays seen in this outstanding video were born on New Year’s Eve and are being monitored closely by the aquarium’s aquarists.
The pups were born to two mothers who both reside in the Fish Tunnel display, which does not currently house a male eagle ray. The team says there are two ways the female eagle rays named Nibble and Spot could have conceived the pups;
Kentucky's Newport Aquarium has announced that Sweet Pea, the first documented Shark Ray to breed in a controlled environment, gave birth to seven pups on January 24! Coincidentally, Sweet Pea's pups arrived during the same week as an International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) report estimating that one in four shark and ray species are at risk of extinction. Shark Rays are considered a vulnerable species.
With Sweet Pea housed at an offsite facility in Northern Kentucky, the first pup arrived at 12:25 a.m. ET. A total of three females and three males survived the nearly five-hour birthing process, while a fourth female pup did not. Newport Aquarium now has 10 shark rays in all, which is the most in the world from any one institution.
Three high definition surveillance cameras were installed at the offsite facility earlier in the week to monitor Sweet Pea’s progress. With this technology, Newport Aquarium officials had the ability to remotely watch Sweet Pea online.
General Curator Mark Dvornak first noticed the pups at around 5:20 a.m. while checking the live video feed on his tablet from his home. He immediately sent an alert out to the rest of the husbandry staff and by 5:35 a.m. biologists were on site monitoring the six newborn pups.
“Seeing the live video feed of the small pups swimming around was a bit surreal this morning,” said Dvornak. “Racing into work, I felt a bit of trepidation too as I realized our seven-year dream of successfully breeding these wondrous creatures had become reality.”
It's not uncommon for aquarists at New England Aquarium to find shark eggs in its Trust Family Foundation Shark and Ray Touch Tank. Often, these eggs are not fertile, but a while back, keepers collected one that hatched some five months later, ushering in the arrival of a brand new baby female Epaulette Shark. Her stunning stripes will fade over time, leaving only dark spots, but as juveniles, these solid patterns serve to confuse potential predators in the wild.
For now, the tiny shark pup is most at ease hidden safely inside a piece of tubing in her nursery tank. Until she's old enough to join the rest of the group in the Touch Tank, visitors can meet her parents and watch for newly laid eggs!
You can read more about the epaulette shark baby and learn more about this fascinating species on the Aquarium's Exhibit Galleries Blog: http://galleries.neaq.org/search/label/epaulette%20shark Did you know they can slow down their body functions to survive in low oxygen environments?
Babies have been born to two new Stingrays which arrived at Bristol Zoo last summer. Nine Ocellated Freshwater Stingray pups were born last week after two new females were introduced to the Zoo’s male stingray last year. The new females, sisters named Catalina & Genevieve, arrived at Bristol Zoo from Weston Seaquarium and have wasted little time in breeding. Catalina has produced six pups and three pups are from Genevieve.
The babies, six females and three males, are around just 12cm (4.7 inches) long and will eventually grow to the size of a car tyre. They have now been moved into a separate, off-show tank to keep them safe from larger predators in the display tank. In the coming months they will be re-homed, once they are bigger and stronger.
Photo credit: Lucy King
Jonny Rudd, assistant curator of the aquarium at Bristol Zoo, said: “I’m really pleased that the new pairings of our stingrays has led to the birth of these pups. Our male, called Gamma, is still relatively young and smaller than the females but that obviously hasn’t had any adverse effects.”
Living Coasts Aquarium has bred a venomous fish for the first time. The new arrival is the first Blue Spotted Stingray is only the second one ever born in the UK. According to Living Coasts zoo keeper Stuart McGeachie, “It was born in July, live and fully formed, complete with stinging barb and claspers – male appendages. It was about 10 centimeters across – they grow to around 30 to 35 centimeters.”
Torquay’s coastal zoo is home to three adult blue spotted stingrays – males Zorro and Baby Boy, and female Baby Boo. McGeachie added, “We are not sure which male is the father, as both were seen trying to mate with the female. Zorro is the larger of the two, so we suspect it is him!”
Photo credits: Living Coasts Aquarium
Living Coasts director Elaine Hayes said: “They are seen in aquariums, but they get confused with blue-spotted ribbontail rays (Taeniura lymma ). Because of this it is very difficult to establish numbers. The records say there are just 42 in collections, with only 3 births in the last 12 months, not including ours.”
The blue spotted stingray (Dasyatis kuhlii) is light green with blue spots. A member of the shark family, this saltwater fish is found in shallow tropical waters. It has venomous barbs on its tail.
Four Pacific angel sharks were born at the Aquarium of Bay last week in San Francisco. These rare and unusual sharks were once plentiful off California but populations were decimated by overfishing in the 1980s. Researchers hope to learn more about how to protect wild angel sharks by studying the tiny pups.
The Houston Zoo's Kipp Aquarium has seven tiny new
additions to its growing family. (The Zoo) is proud to announce the birth of
seven baby stingrays. Their mom and dad are checkerboard freshwater
stingrays, a species from South America. Dad can be seen swimming in
Kipp Aquarium, while mom and babies are staying in their cozy tanks in
the Aquarium Quarantine until they are ready to go out and meet the
public.
