Prague Zoo’s Komodo Dragon Baffles Keepers
The Prague Zoo, one of the top zoos in the world, is also home to one of the world’s most successful breeding programmes for the endangered Komodo dragon. Recently, the zoo’s female dragon Aranka has laid two sets of fertilized eggs without having mated with a male in what zoo keepers have dubbed a “mysterious” conception.
Two other zoos located in England (London and Chester) have also seen cases of parthenogenetic breeding, though it has been speculated that perhaps Aranka has been carrying the sperm of her former partner, who died a year ago, in her oviducts.
Further research will be conducted on the egg remnants in March once the first young Komodos have hatched.