![]() ( Learn how some animals have ‘virgin births.’) Pups are born fully independent and can swim and hunt on their own. Pups develop inside the casing for around six and a half months before emerging as 10-inch baby sharks. After mating, a female will use special fibers to attach between one and four egg casings securely to the seafloor. Zebra sharks are oviparous, which means they lay eggs. They can also crunch through tough shells with their strong, flat teeth. After using their whisker-like barbels to detect prey in the dark, they use their small mouths and powerful gill muscles to suck their meal from its shell. Their flexible bodies allow them to squeeze into tight crevices to seek out small invertebrates to eat. They are well adapted for finding and eating this type of prey. DietĪ zebra shark’s diet is mainly made up of mollusks and crustaceans, though they are also known to eat small fish. Unlike some other species of shark, zebra sharks don’t have to keep swimming to breathe. They hunt at night and rest on the bottom during the day while pumping water over their gills. ![]() This nocturnal species can be found in shallow coral reefs in the Indo-Pacific, often resting on the sandy seabed. Because their stripes mimic those of a venomous sea snake, other species keep away in case the pattern indicates danger. In the ocean, a zebra-striped pattern is an important defense mechanism for the small, vulnerable pups. Adults look so different from juveniles that until 1823, scientists believed they were two separate species. These stripes fade over time and turn into the leopard-like spots they keep into adulthood. Juveniles are born with dark-brown-and-white stripes resembling the patterns of a zebra. They have rounded, sandy-colored bodies with five ridges, small mouths, whisker-like organs called barbels in front of their snout, and powerful tails that can be nearly as long as the rest of their bodies.Īdults usually grow up to nine feet long-around the same length as a Bengal tiger-but have been reported to reach 12 feet. Zebra sharks don’t look like the ferocious hunters most people expect of a shark. Researchers said their new study is just the beginning.Please be respectful of copyright. Through continued genetic testing and observation, researchers at the Shedd and Field Museum are hopeful questions about the biology of zebra sharks will be answered someday. The extremely rare discovery about Bubbles was recently published in a new study. The Shedd Aquarium plays a key role worldwide in the conservation of zebra sharks. "If parthenogenesis is occurring at a very high rate that is not a good thing, because we want a lot of genetic variation of the individuals we put back into the wild," he said. He said virgin birth pups have low rates of survival the two born to Bubbles both died. "Why is it that she did not like them, were they not pretty enough? We don't know."įeldheim said the question must be answered for the survival of zebra sharks. ![]() ![]() "Now the question becomes why," said Kevin Feldheim, Field Museum lab manager. Researchers said it's even more unusual that Bubbles chose parthenogenesis even though she was exposed to three mature breeding males. While zebra sharks are a species that can reproduce asexually, it is rare. A female that wasn't with males and she is trying to pass on her genes," Watson said. "We always considered parthenogenesis basically like a Hail Mary. She is the first known at the Shedd to reproduce by a process called parthenogenesis, meaning "virgin birth," in which Bubbles fertilized an egg with her own genetic material. The pups were all conceived with the help of male sharks, or so they thought, until genetic testing was done on the offspring of a zebra shark named Bubbles. "We've had one of the most successful breeding programs anywhere around the world with the species." "They started reproducing in 2004 and have produced over 100 offspring over 15 years," said Lise Watson, assistant director of animal operations and habitat. The endangered animals, which are native to Indonesia, have been a fixture at the Wild Reef exhibit since it opened almost 20 years ago. The Shedd Aquarium's female zebra shark Bubbles recently gave birth to twins through parthenogenesis, somtimes called "virgin birth." She fertilized her own eggs herself.ĬHICAGO (WLS) - At six and a half feet long zebra sharks are one of the largest species at Chicago's Shedd Aquarium. ![]()
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