--- title: Female Shark Reproduces Without Male description: Leonie the zebra shark had three babies asexually—all without a male shark in the picture, as DNA testing has proved. canonical: https://time.com/4636548/female-shark-baby/ author: Raisa Bruner article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2017-01-17T18:38:52.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T07:40:13.871Z og:title: This Independent Woman Shark Impressively Reproduced Alone og:description: In a new mystery of the natural world, a zebra shark gave birth solo. og:url: https://time.com/4636548/female-shark-baby/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltead511e48fe995eb/6988b5c5e20a87007da93c38/zebra-shark.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: Zebra shark swims at the Aquarium of the og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: This Independent Woman Shark Impressively Reproduced Alone twitter:description: In a new mystery of the natural world, a zebra shark gave birth solo. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltead511e48fe995eb/6988b5c5e20a87007da93c38/zebra-shark.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # This Independent Woman Shark Impressively Had Babies Without a Male  by [Raisa Bruner](https://time.com/author/raisa-bruner/)  ## Raisa Bruner Jan 17, 2017 6:38 PM UTC  Zebra shark swims at the Aquarium of the Pacific in Long Beach, California, on April 26, 2012. Zebra shark swims at the Aquarium of the Pacific in Long Beach, California, on April 26, 2012.Joe Klamar—Getty Images  by [Raisa Bruner](https://time.com/author/raisa-bruner/)  ## Raisa Bruner Jan 17, 2017 6:38 PM UTC Chalk this one up to mysteries of the deep: a female zebra shark in an Australian aquarium has reproduced asexually, giving birth to three baby sharks without the contribution of a man-shark or any male DNA. Get it, single lady. As [the _New Scientist_ reports](https://www.newscientist.com/article/2118052-female-shark-learns-to-reproduce-without-males-after-years-alone/?utm%5Fmedium=Social&utm%5Fcampaign=Echobox&utm%5Fsource=Facebook&utm%5Fterm=Autofeed&cmpid=SOC%257CNSNS%257C2017-Echobox), lady shark Leonie was matched with a fellow from 1999 to 2012 and gave birth to dozens of offspring before the partners were separated into different tanks and no new dude was introduced into her life. Fast forward to 2016, and despite her isolation and lack of access to a sperm bank, the independent woman still managed to reproduce three baby sharks. Ensuing DNA testing proves that the offspring are Leonie’s own through and through, and don’t retain any residual stored sperm. In other words: single motherhood, for the win. This is [not the first tracked instance](http://science.time.com/2013/12/20/critters-so-ugly-they-have-to-mate-with-themselves/?iid=sr-link1) of single females in captivity figuring out a way to make kids without a Y chromosome; both an eagle ray and a boa constrictor were seen to have switched from sexual to asexual reproduction, the journal notes, and there are examples of female turkeys, [other sharks](http://content.time.com/time/specials/packages/printout/0,29239,1855948%5F1862262%5F1862273,00.html?iid=sr-link3), and snakes reproducing asexually when they’ve never had a male partner. Still, Leonie’s new family is giving scientists pause. While the asexual process results in “extreme inbreeding,” according to biomedical scientist [Dr. Christine Dudgeon](http://researchers.uq.edu.au/researcher/1251), it’s a survival mechanism that might not be as rare as formerly thought. Just goes to show that [like their human](http://time.com/4251381/putin-salutes-the-mysterious-power-of-women/?iid=sr-link1) counterparts, [lady sharks are pretty mysterious creatures.](http://time.com/4200135/female-shark-eats-male/?iid=sr-link1) \[[_New Scientist_](https://www.newscientist.com/article/2118052-female-shark-learns-to-reproduce-without-males-after-years-alone/?utm%5Fmedium=Social&utm%5Fcampaign=Echobox&utm%5Fsource=Facebook&utm%5Fterm=Autofeed&cmpid=SOC%257CNSNS%257C2017-Echobox)\] ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4636548/female-shark-baby/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4636548/female-shark-baby/"},"headline":"This Independent Woman Shark Impressively Had Babies Without a Male","datePublished":"2017-01-17T18:38:52.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T07:40:13.871Z","description":"No sperm donor necessary","url":"https://time.com/4636548/female-shark-baby/","keywords":["Newsfeed","animals"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltead511e48fe995eb/6988b5c5e20a87007da93c38/zebra-shark.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Raisa Bruner","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/raisa-bruner/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltead511e48fe995eb/6988b5c5e20a87007da93c38/zebra-shark.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Zebra shark swims at the Aquarium of the","caption":"Zebra shark swims at the Aquarium of the","creditText":"Joe Klamar—Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-newsfeed/","name":"Newsfeed"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4636548/female-shark-baby/","name":"This Independent Woman Shark Impressively Had Babies Without a Male"}}]}] ```