Komodo Dragons | National Geographic

something special is happening at the
Denver Zoo after eight months in an
incubator eggs are hatching and these
rare baby Komodo dragons are getting
their first glimpse of the world
working with an animal like this that
has very rarely been bred in captivity
and so little is known about them that
everything that we do is such a learning
process that makes it very exciting for
us Komodo dragons are notoriously
difficult to breed in captivity catching
these rare reptiles takes time and
patience it’s hard to believe but when
fully grown these tiny baby dragons turn
into adult Komodos that weigh more than
150 pounds and can live for over thirty
years there may be fewer than 5,000 of
these ancient creatures in the wild
living on small islands in Indonesia
with small populations like the Komodo
dragon it’s important for us to learn as
much as we can about not only keeping
them alive but reproducing them and
raising the end by keeping animals in
breeding them we learned a lot that a
lot of times you can’t learn from field
biology while staff checked the
incubators for new hatchlings the adult
Dragons are examined closely by their
handlers this is caster the dragon
he’s a very curious dragon just very
friendly as you can see he likes to be
pet he’ll shut his eyes when I rub him
near the head the captive Komodo seem
gentle but handlers know better adult
dragons have a nasty bite she’s wild
Komodos will eat just about anything
these zoo dragons feast on a diet
consisting of fish and rats the baby
Komodos will live in a nursery for now
and move to a much larger exhibit as
they grow any time we’ve raised babies
from almost this size to adulthood to
the point where they’re breeding means
to us that we’re doing a good job these
baby dragons are a small miracle and
proof that some creatures truly are born
to be wild