Baby shark born at zoo without mother ever being around male species

A female shark has hatched an egg without it being fertilised by a male, a zoo in Illinois has said.

Brookfield Zoo said the hatching of an epaulette shark pup was not unusual, but the way in which the embryo developed was - the adult female shark had not been housed with a male since arriving at the zoo in 2019.

The zoo therefore believes that the female underwent a reproductive process known as parthenogenesis, which is an asexual reproduction in which a female can produce an embryo without fertilising an egg with sperm.