Zebra Shark Pups Born by Artificial Insemination - Aquarium of the Pacific

On January 27 the Aquarium’s shark team moved two female zebra shark pups born via artificial insemination from the behind-the-scenes shark nursery to their new home in Shark Lagoon. The Aquarium of the Pacific is the first to be able to successfully reproduce zebra sharks through artificial insemination. Fern, a twenty-year-old zebra shark who has lived at the Aquarium since 1997, is the mother of the two ten-month-old shark pups.
Fern was inseminated in September 2013, and the pups hatched from their eggs in late March of 2014. Successful births from artificial insemination can further research in helping dwindling shark populations in the wild.
The zebra shark pups are now about 2.5 to 3 feet long. In addition to being able to see these special sharks, the public will have the chance to touch them starting around Valentine’s Day. Their 140-pound and 7.5-foot long mother Fern can be seen swimming in the Aquarium’s Shark Lagoon exhibit with other large sharks. Aquarium experts have been working with Fern, who is trained to come to the surface for food as well as to voluntarily participate in her own medical exams.

[@SunsetGreat]

The part where the Aquarius are holding them just look cute

[@flwrgrl13]

omg they are so cute!!!! i can't wait to touch them! :) after hearing about these zebra sharks in the tropical reef dive shows, i will admit that im not afraid of sharks anymore. even though the media (movies such as jaws and soul surfer) can portray them as evil, i think these are cute! now i really wish i could cuddle them!!!!!

[@aquariumpacific]

That is wonderful to hear! As you can tell, we love zebra sharks. We also have a Shark Animal Encounter where you can spend some one-on-one time with one of our sharks, it might even be Fern, their mom!

[@ceph9443]

U could actually cuddle dem and i really want to

[@jo287]

Awesome Zebra Sharks especially as pups.

[@steven_bills6073]

I caught a leopard shark once then threw him back

[@miguellozano7749]

I thought pups were 7 inches and black and white stripes

[@aquariumpacific]

Miguel Lozano That is correct. When they were born they had those features. We wanted them to grow to a healthy size before adding them to our public touch pools so these juveniles are old enough to have traded in their stripes for spots.

[@ginabennett9334]

Ahh that explains alot on why they are not black and white

[@jenniebun]

bro

[@aquariumpacific]

Video of our zebra shark pups being added to Shark Lagoon this morning is up! ua-cam.com/video/cLKs9jb1S2w/v-deo.html

[@AirCanadaGreat]

but is this the cownose ray petting pool with the fiddler ray and the bonnethead shark