Charlotte the Stingray Immaculate Conception

About

Charlotte the Stingray Immaculate Conception refers to the pregnancy of a female stingray at a North Carolina aquarium in February 2024, who became pregnant even though there were no male stingrays in her tank. Scientists theorize that Charlotte may have been impregnated by male sharks that were in her tank for a period of time or that her pregnancy is the result of a rare process called parthenogenesis in which egg cells autonomously grow a clone of the mother. Either development would be extremely rare. The story was widely covered in the media in early 2024, prompting discussions and memes referencing it on social media. Many users on social media became invested in the story, posting about the possibility of a stingray Messiah or a shark-stingray hybrid.

Origin

On February 6th, 2024, the Facebook page of Team ECCO, the organization running the Aquarium and Shark Lab in Henderson, North Carolina, posted about an upcoming ultrasound for a pregnant stingray named Charlotte (seen below), remarking that there was no male ray present with her.^[1] The post received over 680 likes in the course of 10 days.

The Aquarium said that two male sharks had been in Charlotte's tank and caretakers had discovered bite marks on her body (sharks often bite while mating). Through a variety of social media channels, including a TikTok page, the aquarium provided updates on Charlotte's situation.^[2]

Spread

The story of the stingray was picked up by late show host Jimmy Kimmel and was discussed briefly in a February 13th, 2024, segment of his show (seen below).^[3]

Word of the stingray story spread on TikTok in February 2024, with posters discussing two separate theories, talking about the possibility of the baby being either a "shark ray" (a stingray-shark cross) or "stesus / steezus," an immaculately conceived stingray messiah.

TikToker @julesandthevibe endorsed the "stesus" theory in a February 15th, 2024, TikTok post, which received 2 million views and almost 300,000 likes in a day (seen below, left).^[4] Also that day, TikToker @kjadeg posted a video explaining the topic and the different theories (seen below, right), receiving over 6.9 million views and 1.1. million likes in a day.^[5]

A February 15th post on X by user @toepacktoe laying out the drama (seen below) as a text conversation between friends received over 318,000 likes and 21,000 reposts in the course of one day.^[6]

Various Examples

External References