The incredible moment a stingray gave birth on a boat after
being caught by a group of fisherman was caught on camera.
Javier Capello shared a 39-second long video to YouTube
Saturday of the pregnant stingray giving birth on his boat.
The video starts with a man placing his hand on the
stingray's belly, gently prodding the creature.
Moments later, one tiny baby ray popped out and started to
wriggle around the boat.
The man continues to press on the stingray's belly, as more
tiny stingrays pop out back to back.
He pauses for a few seconds, and then presses the
cartilaginous fish's belly again, causing more small stingrays to be born.
The video shows at least 12 stingrays being born on the
boat thanks to the help from the unknown man.
Capello, who also shared the video to Reddit, explained
that they caught the pregnant stingray with 'just the basic: Line, hook, living
bait' and 'used a little morena' as bait.
“We didn't really know what to do, she was having problems
letting the littles (sic) out so we gave her some help,” Capello wrote.
“We thought she was dying at first because we cut her tail
off before realizing she was pregnant.”
In the end, Capello wrote that they “felt guilty and threw
them all back,” including the mother and that “luckily they survived.”
It's unclear exactly where or when the video was filmed.
Rays are ovoviviparous, meaning they carry litters of young
inside them numbering up to 13 which feed on individual yolk sacks.
Female rays are capable of storing a male ray's sperm
inside their bodies without getting pregnant for years before impregnating
themselves at a later date.
