Question: At melbourne zoo, they're talking about making a Nurse shark pregnant by doing something to the tissues. Do you think this is possible and what do you think the chances of success are?

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  1. Sure….they’ve been artificially inseminating them at Melbourne Aquarium for quite a few years. They’re moving on to breeding them in test tubes and artificial wombs, because nurse shark embryos eat each other in the womb….meaning fewer babies at the end. I think success is highly likely. 🙂

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  2. Yep, and the other reason that they need some help is that it takes 18 months for the female shark to produce new eggs, so they can only reproduce once every 2 years ( which isn’t very frequently if all the babies et each other).

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  3. Apparently to begin with the female nurse shark starts her pregnancy with 40 embryos but by the time they are ready to be born a year later, there are only 2 left! At 4 months of age, the baby sharks have a full set of function jaws. Ouch.

    I have read that the they have successfully raised the less threatened wobbegong shark in artificial uterus’s in 2009. But if they’re going to apply this technique to the grey nurse they’ll have to remove the baby sharks at a much earlier stage before they eat each other. The earlier they remove the sharks the more dangerous it is.

    I hope that this is successful as the Grey Nurse is critically endangered.

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  4. Not my field. But really interesting !! 😀

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