KOMODO DRAGON HATCHLING. REUTERS.
Five Komodo dragons were hatched at a Spanish zoo.
Their birth marks Spain's first successful Komodo dragon breeding effort in ten years.
Ora, a 13-year-old female Komodo dragon, laid 12 eggs in August.
- Zoo workers artificially incubated five of the eggs over a period of seven months.
- "It was a great task, very tedious and time-consuming, but one that has given us a lot of satisfaction," said Milagros Robledo, the head of the Herpetology department at Spain's Bioparc Fuengirola zoo.
- One of the hatchlings was named "Juanito" in honor of being conceived during the feast of St. John, a Christian celebration.
- Another hatchling was named Fenix because it survived despite egg damage during incubation.
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- Komodo dragons, the world's largest lizards, were classified as "endangered" by the International Union for Conservation of Nature in 2021.
- They are native to four Indonesian islands and can reach nearly 10 feet in length and 150 pounds in weight.
