September 13, 1992

The first Komodo dragon (Varanus komodensis) ever born outside Indonesia is hatched at George Mason Univeristy; the egg had been laid 237 days earlier at the National Zoological Park.  The exhibit at the Zoo had been expanded in 1990, creating a separate nesting area for the female, to encourage breeding. The keeper observed courtship activity from December 7 through December 29, 1991; on January 17, 1992 the female dug a new burrow and six days later scientists found 26 eggs in the burrow. The eggs were removed for incubation, and 10 were sent to a lab at GMU. Within four weeks of the first hatching on Sept. 13,  a total of 13 Komodo dragons hatched at George Mason and at the Zoo, comprising the largest hatching of Komodo dragons on record, in zoos or in the wild. The National Zoological Park becomes the first place in the Western Hemisphere to breed the rare and endangered Komodo dragon, the world’s largest living species of lizard.

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