It is with a heavy heart that we share the news that Lucille, the whitespotted guitarfish at Shedd, has passed away. Larger than life in so many ways, the affectionately nicknamed “Lucy” had a tremendous impact in her nearly 20 years at the aquarium.
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Lucy arrived at Shedd in 2004, shortly after the opening of Wild Reef – the gallery where she lived with several other Indo-Pacific species like a humphead wrasse, blacktip reef sharks and yellow-tailed fusiliers. Upon arrival, she was given the name Lucille, named after the guitar of Chicago blues legend B.B. King. Very little was known about her species when she arrived, and still today whitespotted guitarfish (also known as wedgefish) are under-researched. As a result, we still don’t have a reliable understanding of their lifespan, breeding habits, gestation period and more.
What we do know, we learned from watching and interacting with Lucy.
As an individual, Lucy was very active. Despite the Wild Reef exhibit being designed with several sand beds to rest in, she spent much of her time throughout the water column – to the delight of Shedd guests. Her presence and surprising appearance helped Shedd share more about the family of elasmobranchs she belonged to and the evolutionary connection between sharks and rays.
Evidence suggests that this species is mostly solitary, and Lucy would usually keep to herself, though she would sometimes be spotted around other sharks and rays in her habitat. She was, however, incredibly food motivated. Her care team used this to their advantage to help train Lucy on some feeding and husbandry behaviors to make care easier for the 8-foot-long, 240-pound animal.
Because Lucy was a good eater, her care team was concerned when she skipped a few feedings back in February. Immediately, her care team mobilized, and on-site veterinarians conducted a full assessment with the hopes of figuring out what was wrong. The investigation revealed abnormalities in her reproductive and gastrointestinal tracts. The team started medications to help her heal from infections and increase her appetite in hopes that she would recover.
Lucy’s care team moved her to a comfortable, darker and quieter area to monitor her regularly and stepped in several times to gather more health information and provide hands-on care and nutrition, but she continued to weaken. Her situation declined at the end of March, and she passed away on Saturday, March 30.
Weeks later, Lucy’s pathology results came back, giving her care team additional clarity on her health leading up to her passing. The tests revealed several age-related changes to her reproductive and vascular systems – things we would expect to see in an older animal. The report also confirmed intestinal issues that caused her to stop eating and ultimately would have been impossible for Shedd’s veterinary team to correct.
In the two decades that Lucy has lived at Shedd, her species has seen a sharp decline in the wild and was listed as “critically endangered” by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature in 2018. Part of this decline is attributed to human impacts like commercial fishing bycatch, habitat loss and pollution, coupled by the fact that individuals of the species take 10-12 years to reach sexual maturity to be able to produce a new generation.
The elusive nature of whitespotted guitarfish is what makes Lucy’s time at Shedd so powerful. Each year, nearly 2 million people have had the opportunity to come eye-to-eye with an animal they might never get the chance to see otherwise and gain a new appreciation for the majesty and wonder of the aquatic animal world.
As the late B.B. King said, “The beautiful thing about learning is nobody can take it away from you.”
Even in her passing, Lucy is teaching us so much about her species biology, behavior and more. And the skills and expertise we built caring for her will live on in the way we care for other guitarfish like her.
Thank you for an incredible 20 years, Lucy.