Mystery of Anteater's 'virgin birth' at Connecticut zoo SOLVED as experts say it was freak biological phenomenon

Armani the anteater hadn't been with her mate in the months before she conceived



Zoologists say a fertilized egg was likely 'on hold' until conditions for pregnancy were right

When Archie was born, it gave the impression of immaculate conception

A female anteater left zoologists at a Connecticut conservation center baffled after unexpectedly giving birth more than a year and a half after being separated from her mate.



Officials at the LEO Zoological Conservation Center said they had removed the only male anteater from the enclosure in August, long before the six-month gestation period for baby Archie would have begun.

However, the mystery of how Armani the anteater eventually conceived has finally been revealed as 'embryonic diapause' .

It's not virgin birth in the strict sense of the phrase, however embryonic diapause happens when a mother puts a fertilized egg on hold in her uterus.

How did Archie come into being? Embryonic diapause - not virgin birth in the strict sense of the phrase, but embryonic diapause happens when a mother puts a fertilized egg on hold in her uterus

Mysterious anteater birth: Little Archie, pictured, was unexpectedly born at a Connecticut conservation center after his mother and father were separated months prior No male mate: Officials at the LEO Zoological Conservation Center told the Greenwich Time they had removed the only male anteater from the enclosure in Augus, but little Archie was born in April regardless

If environmental conditions aren’t right, the mother can prevent the fertilized egg from implanting and developing for long periods of time.



The process has never been observed in an anteater, however it has been documented in armadillos.

Whilst zookeepers may not have witnessed Armani with her male companion, Alf, at some point they actually were together.

Some scientific papers have mentioned the scenario in which an animal's body pauses a pregnancy until environmental conditions are right.



‘When she gives birth, her entire uterus is going to clear out,’ Stacey Belhumeur, species survival plan coordinator for the North American population of giant anteaters, told the Greenwich Time . ‘Anything that's in her uterus, even another undeveloped embryo, would clear out.’

Egg delay: Marcella Leone, founder and director of the conservation center, suspects this might be a rare case of delayed implantation, when fertilized eggs remain dormant in the uterus for a period of time (Stock photo)

For weeks there had been theories as to how Armani became pregnant.

Some had suggested parthenogenesis, or for want of a better term, a virgin birth.



During such cases, the embryo grows and develops in the absence of fertilization.



It sounds unusual—some might even say miraculous—but it’s a surprisingly common occurrence in the animal kingdom.

Researchers believe that an absence of available males likely drives the phenomenon.