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Visitors watching the spectacle rushed to alert aquarium staff, who did not know the shark was pregnant. But when they arrived at the tank they found a female shark with a large gaping stomach wound and four babies swimming in the tank. Aquarist Fiona Davies, said that the impromptu Cesarean probably saved the lives of the baby sharks. In most natural births, which usually take place at night, the babies would have been eaten by adult sharks and stingrays before staff could rescue them. She said that while it was common for sharks to nip each other in the pool and in the wild, she had never seen a shark act as a midwife in this way.

"It had to bite a certain part to let them out and do it without killing the babies or the mother."

When staff moved the mother they found a further four sharks inside her. All survived. The young sharks have been put in a "nursery" at the aquarium and will eventually be released into the wild. The mother shark was doing "surprisingly well" and was being monitored.








"You have been blessed with the grace of the Panther"