The internet is alive with complaints and confusion that Charlotte the stingray has still yet to give birth.
Memes aren’t in short supply with some people posting on social media that Charlotte ‘might just be chubby’ as they react to her supposed ‘immaculate conception.’
One social media users feels they are being ‘gaslighted by a stingray,’ while others question if images of Charlotte have been manipulated so she appears pregnant.
A person posted a picture of Sophia Petrillo from The Golden Girls TV show saying: ‘Picture it. Sicily, 1912’ to describe how long she’s been watching Charlotte’s pregnancy.
According to the Aquarium & Shark Lab in Hendersonville, North Carolina, which is where Charlotte is held, the stingray is due ‘any day now.’
Charlotte the stingray is at the Aquarium & Shark Lab in Hendersonville, North Carolina
People on social media are expressing their annoyance with waiting for Charlotte to give birth
The Aquarium & Shark Lab in Hendersonville, North Carolina announced that Charlotte the stingray got pregnant by ‘immaculate conception’
Social media users are confused about why Charlotte’s pregnancy is lasting for so long
In February, the aquarium speculated that Charlotte was impregnated by a white-spotted bamboo shark which was living in the same tank.
However, experts said it was impossible that the shark and stingray could have mated, saying their difference in size would be a large component against the theory and their DNA’s wouldn’t match up anatomically.
‘We should set the record straight that there aren’t some shark-ray shenanigans happening here,’ Kady Lyons, a research scientist at the Georgia Aquarium in Atlanta told AP News.
Social media users feel like they are being manipulated by the sting ray since the aquarium has not given a date for her birth
People are now joking that Charlotte’s pregnancy might not be real
Commentary and jokes about Charlotte’s pregnancy are running rampant online
Still, people following the aquarium’s updates on Charlotte appear to becoming restless, as one person posted the meme of Rose from The Titanic thinking about the stingray and saying: ‘It’s been 84 years.’
Meanwhile, another person compared the lack of information about Charlotte’s due date to Princess Kate from the royal family’s disappearance from public view.
A separate post asserted that Charlotte isn’t pregnant at all and another complained: ‘We’re being so gaslighted by a stingray!’
Experts have said that a stingray having a baby without a male mate isn’t unheard of for some mammals, including sharks, that have been in isolation for long time periods.
The process is called parthenogenesis, which is a scientific term for virgin birth when the stingray produces a clone of itself.
Dr. Christopher Lowe, a professor of marine biology and director of the Shark Lab at California State University said the aquarium likely doesn’t know the exact due date because it’s difficult to know when the stingray conceived.
Stingrays typically have a gestation period of three to four months.
But people aren’t buying it, with some saying they don’t believe she was ‘ever pregnant because it has STILL not birthed any Jesus babies.’
People are doubting Charlotte’s pregnancy because the aquarium has not announced a due date
If a stingray is in isolation for extended periods of time, it can replicate or clone itself to produce offspring without a mate
Charlotte likely conceived through parthenogenesis, also called a virgin birth
People are comparing the lack of information about Charlotte’s due date to Princess Kate from the royal family’s disappearance from public view
It’s ‘probably because they don’t know exactly when she started developing an embryo, and we don’t know if parthenogenesis requires longer gestation periods,’ Lowe told Dailymail.com.
He added: ‘They can become pregnant without observed mating with a male in two ways,’ by either storing sperm for up to one year or through parthenogenesis – which is the more likely scenario.
‘Turns out that parthenogenesis is more common in sharks and rays than we previously thought, so this is the most likely explanation,’ Lowe said.
A stingray’s gestation period typically lasts three to four months
Users have taken to X to joke about the absurdity of the initial claims that Charlotte was impregnated by a shark.
One person posted: ‘Hear me out… What if Charlotte the stingray is pregnant with a human Babydaddy?’
Another person posted a meme of Maury – a popular talk show host in the 1990s – reading: ‘Results are in: Shark, you ARE NOT the father!’
There was speculation that Charlotte was impregnated by a shark
Experts said it’s not possible for a shark to impregnate a stingray
Immaculate conception versus a shark baby is the ongoing question online
Charlotte has become an anomaly around the world as people wait for her pups to be born
However, the official reason Charlotte became pregnant won’t officially be confirmed until a DNA test is performed on the pups.
The aquarium said Charlotte is pregnant with up to four pups, and released a video of Charlotte’s sonogram on March 9 but some followers were confused, saying there only appeared to be one pup, not four.
‘I thought they originally saw possibly 4 babies on previous ultrasound?’ the person asked, adding: ‘Would it be possible that some did not make it or something in her womb?’
‘So we went from 3/4 pups to 1?!’ another person asked.
Mercedes Burns, an assistant professor of biological sciences at the University of Maryland, told Dailymail.com that she expects the stingray to give birth in roughly another month.
