Film Review

08 January 2009 22:05 BST

Virgin dragon births

Komodo dragons are able to reproduce without the need for a male, scientists at two British zoos have discovered this week.

Workers at Chester Zoo are anxiously awaiting the arrival of eight dragons to hatch that were the result of "immaculate conception".

Flora, the virgin Komodo dragon at the zoo, hatched 11 eggs – three of which have since collapsed – in May this year despite having never been mixed or mated with a male dragon.

Genetic fingerprinting was carried out on the three collapsed eggs and on the adult Komodo dragons at the zoo. This testing proved that Flora was both the mother and the father of the eggs – a process known as parthenogenesis.

And at London Zoo four Komodo dragons which hatched earlier this year have also been found to be a result of this process. The adult female Sungai laid a clutch of eggs more than two years after she had lived with a male dragon.

Sungai later mated with a male dragon and laid another clutch of eggs – demonstrating that these dragons, which are the world's largest, can switch between asexual and sexual reproduction depending on whether a mate is available.

London Zoo's curator of herpetology, Richard Gibson, commented: "I am delighted that the mysterious parentage of our Komodo dragon babies has been solved and that we have discovered something new to science at the same time.

"Knowing that the world's largest lizard can reproduce like this suggests that many other reptiles may also do this more often than we thought and may lead to changes in the way we manage this and other species in breeding programmes.

"This discovery also raises important questions about the natural history of dragons in the wild and will therefore help to safeguard the future of the species."

And Kevin Buley, Chester Zoo's curator of lower vertebrates and invertebrates, added: "This discovery has very important implications for understanding how reptiles are potentially able to colonise new areas.

"Theoretically a female Komodo dragon in the wild could swim to a new island and then establish an entirely new population of dragons. The genetics of self-fertilisation in lizards means that all her hatchlings would have to be male.

"These would grow up to mate with their own mother and therefore, within one generation, there would potentially be a population able to reproduce normally on the new island."

Both studies are reported in this week's Nature journal.

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