Several fishermen got a little more than they bargained for when they reeled in a stingray that started giving birth inside their boat.
Video of the astonishing delivery was recently uploaded to YouTube, showing at least a dozen slippery babies popping out of the stingray after some prodding by one of the fishermen.
Unfortunately for the mom, the men had already cut off her tail before realizing the creature was pregnant, according to Javier Capello, who uploaded the video. That move was likely because the tail's barbed stinger can be dangerous when used in self-defense.
However, Capello claims that after the babies were delivered, all the animals -- including the mother -- were thrown back into the water.
"Guiltiness was heavier than hunger," he wrote, adding that they all appear to have survived.
"Mom seemed pretty healthy when it swum off, and the sting (is) only a defense tool they don't need it to eat, so I guess they survived," Capello wrote.
The remarkable birth comes just a couple weeks after a similar YouTube video showing a 12-year-old Australian boy assisting in another stingray's live birth.
Miller Wilson counted at least eight babies exiting the massive stingray, which he named "Big Mama."
Perry Hampton, vice president of animal husbandry at the Aquarium of the Pacific in Long Beach, California, warned against such "dangerous and risky behavior" in an interview with The Huffington Post when that video was posted.
"It’s never a good idea to handle wild animals," Hampton said. "The act alone causes stress. This is something that is difficult to measure but it affects them negatively in many ways. Added to that is the way he is handling them by picking them up by their spiracles [breathing openings behind their eyes]. Comparing it to lifting us up by our nostrils is overstating it, but you get the point."
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