8 shark pups emerge from bitten mother's wound
Mother shark stitched up and doing well after impromptu Cesarean section in front of stunned onlookers.
By Stephanie RogersThu, Nov 12 2009 at 12:19 PM EST
Photo: The Daily Mail Visitors at a New Zealand aquarium unexpectedly became onlookers at a grisly and highly unusual Cesarean section as a pregnant shark, bitten by another shark in the tank, gave birth through her wound.
Alarmed, the visitors alerted aquarium staff that they had seen things float out of the shark’s gaping wound. Realizing what happened, staff removed the four baby sharks from the tank before stingrays and other sharks could eat them.
While moving the mother, they discovered that she still had another four sharks inside her body.
Amazingly, this bizarre birth probably saved the lives of the baby sharks. Sharks tend to give birth at night, but if the mother had given birth naturally, the babies likely would have been eaten before they could be rescued.
The mother shark is stitched up and doing just fine, according to the aquarium’s spokeswoman.
”She's doing well, but we're watching her closely as it's a one-off occurrence, so we're not sure how she'll do.”
Comments
Carol Thompson
11/19/2009 12:03 PM
I am shocked that Mother earth network would accept a sponsorship from Eukanuba pet food. This product is made by Menu Foods who where involved in the recent recall of tained pet food products. Eukanuba is also not an all natural and certainly not a holistic food for your pet. This is like being sponsored by McDonalds!
