Surprise! South African Association for Marine Biological Research (Saambr) staff found six thorntail stingray pups fluttering around the Open Ocean exhibit at uShaka Sea World on Monday morning.
The litter has three male and three female pups.
Saambr spokesperson Ann Kunz said: “The pups have been transferred to the nursery in our quarantine facility for the time being and we will keep you updated on their progress.”
Last January, clinical veterinarian Dr Francois Lampen joined his colleagues, Dr Justin Hart and Dr Ryan Daly, in the Open Ocean Exhibit armed with an underwater ultrasound machine to perform underwater ultrasounds on some of the stingrays under Saambr’s care.
During the examination, Lampen observed that one of the large females, Miss Cape Town, was carrying pups.
“He continued to monitor her progress throughout her pregnancy through regular ultrasound scans and, therefore, it was no surprise that she gave birth overnight,” Kunz said.
She said adult thorntail rays are among the world’s largest rays and can grow to 200kg. The pups, which averaged 2.3kg, will have a lot of growing to do.
It was the first time Saambr was able to carry out an ultrasound on any of their fish, sharks, and rays while they went about their day in their exhibit - oblivious to the fact that a medical examination was taking place.
Saambr staff could see one of the thorntail rays was pregnant through her “bump” but they were unsure how far along the ray was.
Since the ray spent a fair amount of time resting on the bottom of the exhibit, as rays do, Saambr was confident they would be able to hover over the ray long enough to capture video and images of her embryos.
In her last litter, the stingray gave birth to six pups.