The internet is full of complaints and confusion because Charlotte the stingray has not given birth yet.
Memes are not scarce, with some people posting on social media that Charlotte “might just be chubby” while reacting to her supposed “immaculate conception.”
Some social media users feel they are being “stingrayed” while others wonder if images of Charlotte have been manipulated to make her look pregnant.
One person posted a photo of Sophia Petrillo from the TV show The Golden Girls saying, ‘Imagine it.’ Sicily, 1912 ‘to describe how long she has been observing Charlotte’s pregnancy.
According to the Aquarium & Shark Lab in Hendersonville, North Carolina, which is where Charlotte is located, the stingray will arrive “any day now.”
Charlotte the stingray is at the Aquarium & Shark Lab in Hendersonville, North Carolina.
People on social media express their annoyance at waiting for Charlotte to give birth
The Aquarium & Shark Lab in Hendersonville, North Carolina, announced that Charlotte the stingray became pregnant from “immaculate conception.”
Social media users are confused about why Charlotte’s pregnancy lasts so long
In February, the aquarium speculated that Charlotte had been impregnated by a white-spotted bamboo shark that lived in the same tank.
However, experts said it was impossible that the shark and ray could have mated, saying their size difference would be a major component against the theory and that their DNA would not match anatomically.
“We should be clear that there is no shark ray shenanigans going on here,” said Kady Lyons, a research scientist at the Georgia Aquarium in Atlanta. AP News.
Social media users feel manipulated by the stingray since the aquarium has not given the date of its birth.
People now joke that Charlotte’s pregnancy might not be real.
Comments and jokes about Charlotte’s pregnancy abound online
Still, people following the aquarium’s updates on Charlotte seem to be getting uneasy, 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’s disappearance of the royal family from public view.
A separate post claimed that Charlotte is not pregnant at all and another complained: ‘A stingray is gaslighting us!’
Experts have said that a manta ray having a young without a male partner is not unheard of for some mammals, including sharks, that have been isolated for long periods of time.
The process is called parthenogenesis, which is a scientific term for virgin birth when the stingray produces a clone of itself.
Dr. Christopher Lowe, professor of marine biology and director of the California State University Shark Laboratory, said the aquarium probably doesn’t know the exact birth date because it’s difficult to know when the ray conceived.
Manta rays typically have a gestation period of three to four months.
But people don’t believe it, and some say they don’t believe she “has never been pregnant because she STILL hasn’t given birth to any baby Jesus.”
People doubt Charlotte’s pregnancy because the aquarium has not announced a due date.
If a ray is isolated for long periods of time, it can replicate or clone itself to produce unpaired offspring.
Charlotte probably conceived through parthenogenesis, also called virgin birth
People are comparing the lack of information about Charlotte’s due date to Princess Kate’s disappearance of the royal family from public view.
It’s “probably because they don’t know exactly when an embryo started to develop and we don’t know if parthenogenesis requires longer gestation periods,” Lowe told Dailymail.com.
He added: “They can become pregnant without being observed mating with a male in two ways,” either by storing sperm for up to a year or through parthenogenesis, which is the most likely scenario.
“It turns out that parthenogenesis is more common in sharks and rays than we previously thought, so this is the most likely explanation,” Lowe said.
The gestation period for a stingray usually lasts three to four months.
Users have taken to X to joke about the absurdity of initial claims that Charlotte became pregnant by a shark.
One person posted: ‘Listen to me… 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, saying: ‘The results are in: Jaws, YOU ARE NOT the father!’
It was speculated that Charlotte became pregnant by a shark.
Experts say it is not possible for a shark to fertilize a stingray
Immaculate conception versus a baby shark is the constant question online
Charlotte has become an anomaly around the world as people wait for their puppies to be born.
However, the official reason Charlotte became pregnant will not be officially confirmed until the puppies are DNA tested.
The aquarium said Charlotte is pregnant with up to four cubs and posted a video of charlotte ultrasound on March 9, but some followers were confused and said there only seemed to be one puppy, not four.
‘I thought they originally saw possibly 4 babies on the previous ultrasound.’ asked the person, and added: ‘Could it be possible that someone hasn’t made it or something in his belly?’
‘So we went from 3/4 puppies 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 about another month.