FORT WORTH (WBAP/KLIF News) – The Fort Worth Zoo welcomed its first clutch of dragons for the first time in its 108-year history on Tuesday.
Upon hatching, the Komodo dragons were about 12 to 15 inches long and weighed less than a half a pound each.
The Zoo’s Alexis Wilson said that’s about as big as a bar of soap but the dragons will eventually grow exponentially.
“A full grown adult male can reach more than 8 feet in length and weigh up to 200 pounds,” she said.
The hatchlings are the spawn of a seven-year-old female Komodo dragon that came to the Zoo in 2012 from Prague and a seven-year-old male Komodo dragon.
The mother is six feet in length and weighs 26 pounds. The father is 6.5 feet long and weighs 44 pounds.
Female Komodo dragons lay about 20 to 30 eggs which incubate for almost nine months.
To ensure the eggs were kept safe, the Fort Worth Zoo’s herpetological team cared for the eggs inside the Zoo’s Museum of Living Art’s incubation nursery until they hatched.
The Zoo said the pair have introduced an entirely new bloodline of “healthy, genetically diverse Komodo dragons into the population, which contributes as a hedge against the extinction of these vulnerable reptiles.”
Wilson said when the clutch is old enough, several of the dragons will go to other zoos.
“One or two of the dragons will stay in Fort Worth the rest likely will be loaned out to other institutions,” she said.
With the exception of one hatchling, which is now on exhibit in MOLA, the other dragons are residing in an off-exhibit habitat across from their parent’s exhibit.
Komodo dragons are officially listed as vulnerable by the International Union for Conservation of Nature.
It’s the largest living lizard in the world and is typically found in grasslands and monsoon forests of the Indonesian archipelago, which includes the island of Komodo.
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