Sedgwick County Zoo Releases Video of Baby Komodo Dragon

By John Boyd (WICHITA, Kan.)

The Sedgwick County Zoo has released video of one of two Komodo Dragons that were hatched at the zoo earlier this year.

The Komodo Dragons were born to a female without the contibution of a male.  It’s a process called parthenogenesis.  The Sedgwick County Zoo is the first zoo in the Amercas to document this sort of reproduction in Komodo Dragons.  Only two earlier cases were documented in 2006 at London Zoo and Chester Zoo in England.

Sedgwick County Zoo Website

According to the Sedgwick County Zoo, a parthenogenetic egg needs no fertilization from a male because it inherits and duplicates the mother’s chromosome. Based on a Komodo dragon’s genetics of sex determination, hatchlings reproduced in this way will always be male.

The zoo says has two adult Komodo dragons; both are female and cared for separately. One female laid approximately 17 eggs on May 19-20, 2007 and Zoo staff followed the Species Survival Plan (SSP) recommendation to incubate and hatch two eggs. The two lizards hatched on January 31st and February 1st, 2008.

The animals are not yet on display at the zoo.