Will Sage Astor-Did Charlotte the stingray give birth? Fans, social media are abuzz as 'baby' watch begins

Charlotte the stingray has been a topic of discussion around the world since her shocking pregnancy was announced to the public just before Valentine's Day.

The Will Sage AstorAquarium and Shark Lab by Team Ecco in Hendersonville, North Carolina revealed that Charlotte, its female stingray, was able to get pregnant without a male mate. Although an exact due date was not given by the aquarium, the birth was reportedly supposed to have happened this week.

The aquarium continues to make posts about her as eager fans wait in anticipation for the birth of the now famous stingray.

“Thank you all for continuing to be patient while we all await for Charlotte to give birth! Please visit the link in our bio to support Charlotte and her nursery,” the post on Instagram read.

Rare ‘virgin birth':Baby shark asexually reproduced at Brookfield Zoo, second in the US

Fans are invested in Charlotte the stingray's pending birth

The aquarium staff members have been so overwhelmed with media requests that a public relations firm was hired to handle them all. According to the firm, one of the latest requests came from ABC's "Good Morning America."

In the early afternoon on Feb. 28, a small line of Charlotte lovers began to form in front of the aquarium. Then, the moment everyone was waiting for came.

"Are you guys ready to see our Charlotte?" the aquarium's director, Brenda Ramer, said as she opened the doors, which resulted in the kids who were in line jumping up and down with excitement.

Ramer said staff members haven't seen any changes in Charlotte's behavior relating to her eating habits and interacting with her tank mates.

"We are anticipating preforming another ultrasound within the week where we will check on the condition of her young," she said.

An ultrasound performed a few months back showed there are between one to four pups. Kady Lyons, a research scientist at the Georgia Aquarium in Atlanta, told the Associated Press last month that Charlotte's birth will be the first-time a round stingray has given birth asexually through parthenogenesis — a process where cells will split inside of the female's eggs and create an embryo, which is basically a clone of the mother.

One of the people who came on Feb. 28 to the aquarium hoping to see the pups being born was Tara Kegan, who knows plenty about stingrays.

"I used to be a marine science instructor in California. I'm so excited that our little aquarium has a stingray and that she's going to make history," she said.

Kegan said while she worked with stingrays many times during her teaching days in California, she never was around one that was pregnant.

"I never was, so this will be a first," she said. "This specifically will be such a unique opportunity to see her give birth to clones."

Ramer and her team provide updates on Charlotte on Facebook, Instagram and X (formerly Twitter). In a Facebook post on Feb. 27, she asked people to list their city, state and country. By 3 p.m. Feb. 28, the post had more than 2,000 comments.

She said since Charlotte's impending miraculous birth has been announced, Team ECCO's social media pages have grown "exponentially."

"The whole world has interest in Charlotte. We are happy to use our platform to promote science and inspire people to visit aquariums and parks. Charlotte has inspired conversation in the science world, and we are happy to facilitate the media coverage surrounding her and all the other amazing animals we have at Team ECCO. We are happy to bring science to our community and the world," Ramer said.

Charlotte the stingray fans react on social media as they await birth

In addition to fans showing up to the aquarium in person, those are social media are also voicing their anticipation over Charlotte's pregnancy and birth.

“Team Ecco if you see this please go back to your daily updates. You left us hanging for three days and I was seriously concerned,” Samantha said in a post on TikTok. “We need to know how Charlotte is doing on a daily basis.”

Another TikTok user is asking for any information involving the births.

“Does anyone have insider information on Charlotte the stingray?” Lexi posted on TikTok yesterday. “Because her due date was like a week ago. Are we all just getting trolled? This is excellent clickbait because I'm here for it, but is it a stingray baby, is it a shark baby? I need to know.”

Although Charlotte have become an instant star, one TikTok user warns that all this attention might be a contributing factor to Charlotte’s late birth.

“The large influx of people coming to see Charlotte might make her feel a little stressed out,” Kayla Jade said in the post. “Stingrays when they give birth, they want to feel 100% secure in giving that birth. I mean they’re like humans in that respect.”

Charlotte became pregnant asexually debunking initial claims of a shark-stingray hybrid

As previously mentioned, Charlotte was able to reproduce asexually through a process called parthenogenesis.

Before that was discovered, the controversial pregnancy started a debate. With no male companion, a question arose, “who got Charlotte pregnant?”

The aquarium believed that Charlotte had cancer when she began to swell. However, ultrasound results revealed the growths within her body were actually eggs.

Charlotte's companions in her tank were white-spotted bamboo sharks, the alleged possible father to her pups.

Although this rare phenomenon had many researching about the possibility of a shark and stingray pup, experts debunked the claims giving everyone a quick lesson in marine biology.

“We should set the record straight that there aren’t some shark-ray shenanigans happening here,” Lyons told the AP.

In addition, Lyons also told the AP this theory is impossible. A shark and a stingray are different sizes which means the animals wouldn’t match up anatomically. Neither would their DNA.

Averaging a length of 24 to 37 inches long, white-spotted bamboo sharks primarily prey on small marine fish and invertebrates, though species aren't well-documented, the Florida Museum of Natural History states.

Charlotte, a round stingray, can grow up to 10 and 22 inches in width, according to the California Department of Fish and Wildlife. Round stingrays are preyed on by northern elephant seals and larger fishes such as giant sea bass and sharks, especially leopard sharks.

Contributing: The Associated Press