Kricket's Kritters is a woman-owned, environmentally responsible Bearded Dragon Breeder who is focused on providing care information about Bearded
Dragons (Pogona Vitticeps) and Feeder Insects such as Crickets, Mealworms, and
Superworms.
Downloadable Care Sheets and Foods Lists, as well as many Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ’s) about breeding,
feeding, heating, health issues, housing, and more are available on Kricket's Kritters Dragon Page and Insects Page.
"I wanted to
say that I really do respect all that you seem to stand for on your site. The
way you raise your dragons with recycled and sustainable materials is definitely
something I look up to. It's more than inspired me to take another look at what
I do and use everyday to see how I can improve."
Kricket's Kritters makes every effort to make environmentally conscious business and husbandry decisions, some examples of current practices include:
The electricity used for our facility is provided by Portland General Electric's Green Source Program which provides 100 percent of the electricity from renewable sources
and reduces reliance on fossil fuels. With this plan, approximately 50
percent of the electricity purchased comes from wind sources, 40 percent from geothermal sources and 10 percent from biomass (wood waste) power. For details, visit Green Source in PGE's Power Options section or read PGE's Frequently Asked Questions.
Nearly
100% of Kricket's Kritters produce and basic supplies shopping is done
within 2 miles of our location. By supporting local businesses, we can walk, pull a little red wagon, or bicycle nearly everywhere we go.
When human power just isn't enough, we have a short biodiesel schoolbus
which allows us to carry equipment and animals to shows and events, or
for us to acquire oversized items, but yet be responsible about the
carbon emmisions we put into the air. To learn more about BioDiesel, please visit http://www.biodiesel.org
Custom enclosures and incubators are built using recycled, reclaimed, and reused hardware, wood, paint, plexiglass, etc, to the fullest extent possible. Some of which is donated by Kricket's Kritters customers.
Baby food jars are donated by Portland, OR area residents for re-use by Kricket's Kritters.
Organic gardening - No herbicides, pesticides, or other toxic substances are used on any vegetables or fruits that are fed to the bearded dragons or feeder insects. Many of the vegetables are grown in our own garden. The rest are grown by local, Certified Organic Farmers to the fullest extent possible.
Business cards and postcards are printed on recycled cardstock using soy inks by local printing company, Phoenix Media, Portland, OR.
Egg
crates for housing crickets are collected from local restaurants like the Cup & Saucer Cafe and The Hawthorne Cafe.
Plastic food containers and lids (such as yogurt,
cream cheese, hummus, etc) are collected from household use and
customer/neighbor/friend donations and are re-used for cricket egg laying containers,
food & water dishes, etc.
"May I live simply that others may simply live." Gandhi
Hair and mushrooms create a recipe for cleaning up oily beaches
Meredith May, Chronicle Staff Writer
Wednesday, November 14, 2007
A
group of guerrilla volunteers is cleaning oil from San Francisco's
beaches using an unorthodox, albeit totally organic, method: human hair
and mushrooms.
Using mats made of hair, they are absorbing the droplets of oil that
have washed ashore since a cargo ship rammed the base of a Bay Bridge
tower last week, spilling 58,000 gallons of fuel.
Hair, which naturally absorbs oil from air and water, acts as a
perfect sponge, said Lisa Gautier of San Francisco, who provided 1,000
hair mats. They are about the size of a doormat, tightly woven with
dark hair, and feel somewhat like an S.O.S pad.
While the mats may not be the obvious choice among hazardous waste
experts, they hit San Francisco's green chord: More than 700 volunteers
have tried them in recent days. Organizers hope their success will
inspire more ecological responses to toxic waste removal.
Gautier had 1,000 of them on hand because she runs a nonprofit,
Matter of Trust, which matches donations from businesses with needy
nonprofits. She collects human hair from Bay Area salons and sends it
to Georgia to be woven into mats, which she then gives to the San
Francisco Department of the Environment to absorb used motor oil.
Once the mats are soaked with black gunk, oyster mushrooms will take over, growing on the mats and absorbing the oil.
National mushroom expert Paul Stamets was in town the weekend after
the spill for the Green Festival, heard of Gautier's work and donated
$10,000 worth of oyster mushrooms to harvest on the oily hair mats.
Gautier said the mushrooms will absorb the oil within 12 weeks, Gautier said, turning the hair mats into nontoxic compost.
"You make it like a lasagna," Gautier said. "You layer the oily hair
mats with mushrooms and straw, turn it in six weeks, and by 12 weeks
you have good soil."
The soil may not be good enough to grow carrots but is certainly good enough to use for landscaping along roads, she said.
The Environmental Protection Agency caught wind of the hair brigade
and is giving the volunteers four-hour classes to certify them to clean
up oil, Gautier said.
Cole Hardware provided discount white Tyvex protection suits, and
city workers from the Department of the Environment pitched in the 800
hair mats they had on hand.
On Tuesday, volunteers used the mats and white plastic forks to gingerly lift tiny oil blobs from the sand at Ocean Beach.
"It's interesting how when we are challenged, we become more
inventive," said volunteer David Hirtz, who lives nearby and is a
member of the Neighborhood Emergency Response Team run through the San
Francisco Fire Department.
"Instead of yelling and complaining and blaming, you are doing something about it," he said.
By Tuesday afternoon, piles of garbage bags full of the used hair
mats were sitting on Ocean Beach. Gautier says they will be placed in
bins until she can locate a place to make one huge pile and sprinkle in
the mushrooms. She's tried to contact people from the O'Brien's Group,
hired by the ship owner to do cleanup with skimmers, to ask them to
take the pile, but so far hasn't gotten a response.
The Coast Guard, which in the first days after the spill turned
hundreds of volunteers away from the beaches due to safety concerns,
was not delighted when informed of the latest eco-volunteer effort.
"I live in San Francisco, too, and I understand wanting to clean the
beach in a way that's good for the environment, but this stuff is
toxic, and people who are not trained shouldn't touch it," said Coast
Guard Petty Officer Mariana O'Leary.
Gautier said nearly all the people using hair mats have since been trained. Even so, she ran out of hair mats Tuesday.
She's been talking with a company in China that makes
industrial-sized hair mats about getting more shipped to San Francisco.
Gautier said she can even have large sea booms made by stuffing hair
into nylon stockings.
"This can completely revolutionize oil spill cleanup," she said, reaching down with a mat to soak up a glob on Ocean Beach.
Two barefoot joggers passed by.
"That's amazing," Gautier said. "Haven't they heard it's dangerous out here?"
Drug Derived From Gila Monster Saliva Helps Diabetics Control Glucose, Lose Weight
ScienceDaily (Jul. 12, 2007)
— Exenatide, a drug that is a synthetic form of a substance found in
Gila monster saliva, led to healthy sustained glucose levels and
progressive weight loss among people with type 2 diabetes who took part
in a three-year study.
“The weight loss factor is important because being overweight and
weight gain is an almost universal problem for people with diabetes,”
said John Buse, M.D., Ph.D., lead researcher in the study and chief of
endocrinology in the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School
of Medicine.
“In that context, it is exciting that patients that continue
exenatide injections continue to lose a bit of weight while maintaining
blood sugar control, even in their third year of therapy,” Buse said.
“While this weight loss is encouraging, it’s important for people to
understand that exenatide is not intended as a weight-loss drug and it
is not approved for that purpose,” Buse said. “Only people with type 2
diabetes should take exenatide.”
Exenatide, marketed as Byetta, was approved by the Food and Drug
Administration in April 2005 to treat type 2 diabetes in patients who
were not able to get their high blood sugar under control in a
combination with one or more of three other medications, metformin or
sulfonylurea thiazolidinedione.
Weight loss was not the only significant finding. After three years
of including exenatide in the drug regimen, 46 percent of participants
achieved sustained glucose – or blood-sugar – levels of 7 percent, and
30 percent had levels of 6.5 percent. The ADA considers levels of 7
percent or lower to be healthy.
Exenatide, which is manufactured by Amylin Pharmaceuticals Inc. in
collaboration with Eli Lilly and Company, comes in a prefilled pen that
type 2 diabetics use to give themselves twice-daily injections within
an hour before their morning and evening meals. It is typically given
in addition to sulfonylurea, or with a combination of metformin and
sulfonylurea.
Exenatide is a synthetic form of a hormone called exendin-4 that
occurs naturally in the saliva of the Gila monster, a large venomous
lizard native to the southwestern United States and northwestern
Mexico. The lizard hormone is about 50 percent identical to a similar
hormone in the human digestive tract, called glucagon-like peptide-1
analog, or GLP-1, that increases the production of insulin when blood
sugar levels are high. Insulin helps move sugar from the blood into
other body tissues where it is used for energy. The lizard hormone
remains effective much longer than the human hormone, and thus its
synthetic form helps diabetics keep their blood sugar levels from
getting too high. Exenatide also slows the emptying of the stomach and
causes a decrease in appetite, which is how it leads to weight loss.
The results being reported now come from following patients who took
exenatide for three years. In the study, Buse and colleagues analyzed
data from 217 diabetes patients. After three years of treatment, most
patients showed sustained reductions in blood sugar levels, in blood
biomarkers that indicate liver injury and sustained, progressive weight
loss averaging 11 pounds.
The study’s co-authors are Leigh MacConell, Ph.D., Anthony H.
Stonehouse, Ph.D., Xuesong Guan, James K. Malone, M.D., Ted E. Okerson,
M.D., David G. Maggs, M.D. and Dennis D. Kim, M.D. All of the
co-authors work for Amylin Pharmaceuticals except for Malone, who works
for Eli Lilly and Company. Amylin has a global agreement with Eli Lilly
and Company to collaborate on the development and commercialization of
exenatide.
Funding for this study was provided by Amylin and Eli Lilly
and Company.
Buse presented these results June 25, 2007 at the annual scientific sessions of the American Diabetes Association in Chicago.
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (2007, July 12). Drug
Derived From Gila Monster Saliva Helps Diabetics Control Glucose, Lose
Weight. ScienceDaily. Retrieved November 28, 2007, from http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/07/070709175815.htm
"Amphibian Ark" Planned to Save Frogs Friday, February 16, 2007
2:08:59
PM ------------------------------------------------------------------------ ATLANTA
(AP) Ponds and swamps are becoming eerily silent. The familiar
melody of ribbits, croaks and chirps is disappearing as a mysterious
killer fungus wipes out frog populations around the globe, a phenomenon
likened to the extinction of dinosaurs.
Scientists from around the
world are meeting Thursday and Friday in Atlanta to organize a worldwide
effort to stem the deaths by asking zoos, aquariums and botanical gardens
to take in threatened frogs until the fungus can be stopped.
The
aim of the group called Amphibian Ark is to prevent the world's more than
6,000 species of frogs, salamanders and wormlike sicilians
from disappearing. Scientists estimate up to 170 species of frogs have
become extinct in the past decade from the fungus and other causes, and
an additional 1,900 species are threatened.
"This is the precedent
of a disease working its way across an entire species on the scale of all
mammals, all birds or all fish," said Joseph Mendelson, curator of
herpetology at Zoo Atlanta and an organizer of Amphibian Ark.
"Humans
would be absolutely stupid if they didn't pay attention to
that." Amphibians, of which frogs make up the majority, are a vital
part of the food chain, eating insects that other animals don't touch and
connecting the world of aquatic animals to land dwellers. Without
amphibians, the insects that would go unchecked would threaten public
health and food supplies.
Amphibians also serve important biomedical
purposes. Some species produce a chemical used as a pain reliever for
humans; one species is linked to a chemical that disables the virus that
causes AIDS.
Amphibian Ark wants zoos, botanical gardens and aquariums in
each country to take in at least 500 frogs from a threatened species to
protect them from the killer fungus, which is called chytrid fungus. Each
frog would get cleaned to make sure it doesn't introduce the scourge into
the protected area.
The group estimates it will cost between $400
million and $500 million to complete the project. It is launching a
fundraising campaign next year to create an endowment.
The
scientists say the amphibian collection is simply a stop gap. It buys time
and prevents more species from going extinct while researchers figure out
how to keep amphibians from dying off in the wild.
The fungus isn't the
only thing that's deadly to amphibians, it's just killing them faster
than development, pollution and global warming, said George Rabb, the
retired head of the Chicago's Brookfield Zoo and a leader in Amphibian
Ark. Scientists will have to closely monitor frog populations rereleased
into the wild once the fungus is eliminated, he said.
"Right now with
global warming and the garbage heap we put in the atmosphere, there are
going to be risks," said Rabb, one of the country's leading conservation
scientists. "That's why we'll need people from other professional fields, epidemiology, climate change."
Scientists aren't quite sure of the
fungus's origin, but they suspect it might be Africa. The African clawed
frog, which carries the fungus on its skin and is immune to its deadly
effects, has been shipped all over the world for research.
The
clawed frog was also used in hospitals in the 1940s as a way to
detect pregnancy in women. It produces eggs when injected with the urine
of a pregnant woman.
The fungus works like a parasite that makes
it difficult for the frogs to use their pores, quickly causing them to
die of dehydration. It has been linked to the extinction of amphibians
from Australia to Costa Rica.
Last month, Japan reported its first cases
of frog deaths from the fungus, prompting research groups to declare an
emergency in the country. On the Caribbean island of Dominica, the fungus
has almost wiped out the mountain chicken, a frog species considered an
island delicacy.
At Yosemite National Park in California, the mountain
yellow-legged frog is close to extinction. The park has only 650 frog
populations left, but 85 percent are infected with the fungus and the
growing quiet along the park's lakes is evident as many of the frogs are
dying off.
Ten Easy Ways to Help the Environment Portland,
Oregon (June 20, 2006) - Most of us already recycle our cans, bottles
and paper materials by putting them into the yellow curbside bins. And
while many people want to do more, they are afraid it might involve an
unmanageable commitment. Fortunately, there are things that we can all
do at home that don’t take a lot of time or energy.
“It’s all about ‘precycling,’ which means prethinking your purchases
and making selective shopping choices that reduce waste before you buy
something,” said Lori Chance, the co-owner of Cartridge World in
Portland which remanufactures inkjet and laser printer cartridges.
There is no doubt we can solve this problem. In fact, we
have a moral obligation to do so. Small changes to your daily routine
can add up to big differences in helping to stop global warming. The
time to come together to solve this problem is now –TAKE ACTION
Want to know more about global warming and its effects?
Carbon dioxide and other gases warm the surface of the planet naturally by trapping solar heat in the atmosphere. This is a good thing because it keeps our planet habitable. However, by burning fossil fuels such as coal, gas and oil and clearing forests we have dramatically increased the amount of carbon dioxide in the Earth’s atmosphere and temperatures are rising.
The vast majority of scientists agree that global warming is real, it’s already happening and that it is the result of our activities and not a natural occurrence. The evidence is overwhelming and undeniable.
We’re already seeing changes. Glaciers are melting, plants and animals are being forced from their habitat, and the number of severe storms and droughts is increasing.
The number of Category 4 and 5 hurricanes has almost doubled in the last 30 years.
Malaria has spread to higher altitudes in places like the Colombian Andes, 7,000 feet above sea level.
The flow of ice from glaciers in Greenland has more than doubled over the past decade.
At least 279 species of plants and animals are already responding to global warming, moving closer to the poles.
If the warming continues, we can expect catastrophic consequences.
Deaths from global warming will double in just 25 years -- to 300,000 people a year.
Global sea levels could rise by more than 20 feet with the loss of shelf ice in Greenland and Antarctica, devastating coastal areas worldwide.
Heat waves will be more frequent and more intense.
Droughts and wildfires will occur more often.
The Arctic Ocean could be ice free in summer by 2050.
More than a million species worldwide could be driven to extinction by 2050.
Scientist
Publishes 'Escape Route' from Global Warming
by Steve
Connor Published
on Monday, July 31, 2006 by the Independent / UK
A
Nobel Prize-winning scientist has drawn up an emergency plan to save the world
from global warming, by altering the chemical makeup of Earth's upper
atmosphere. Professor Paul Crutzen, who won a Nobel Prize in 1995 for his work on the
hole in the ozone layer, believes that political attempts to limit man-made
greenhouse gases are so pitiful that a radical contingency plan is needed.
In a polemical scientific
essay to be published in the August issue of the journal Climate Change, he
says that an "escape route" is needed if global warming begins to run
out of control.
Professor Crutzen has
proposed a method of artificially cooling the global climate by releasing
particles of sulphur in the upper atmosphere, which would reflect sunlight and
heat back into space. The controversial proposal is being taken seriously by
scientists because Professor Crutzen has a proven track record in atmospheric
research.
A fleet of high-altitude
balloons could be used to scatter the sulphur high overhead, or it could even
be fired into the atmosphere using heavy artillery shells, said Professor
Crutzen, a researcher at the Max Planck Institute for Chemistry in Germany.
The effect of scattering
sulphate particles in the atmosphere would be to increase the reflectance, or
"albedo", of the Earth, which should cause an overall cooling effect.
Such
"geo-engineering" of the climate has been suggested before, but
Professor Crutzen goes much further by drawing up a detailed model of how it
can be done, the timescales involved, and the costs.
In his forthcoming
scientific paper, Professor Crutzen emphasises that the best way of averting
global climate disaster is for countries to cut back significantly on their
emissions of greenhouse gases, notably carbon dioxide produced by burning oil,
gas and coal. But in the absence of such measures, and with the average global
temperature expected to rise more than 3C this century, there may soon come a
time when more extreme measures have to be considered, he said.
"If sizeable
reductions in greenhouse gas emissions will not happen and temperatures rise
rapidly, then climatic engineering, as presented here, is the only option
available to rapidly reduce temperature rises and counteract other climatic
effects," Professor Crutzen said.
"Such a modification
could also be stopped on short notice, if undesirable and unforeseen
side-effects become apparent, which would allow the atmosphere to return to its
prior state within a few years," he said.
Such an idea is so
controversial that some scientists opposed its publication in the peer-reviewed
scientific press, fearing that it may encourage the view that it is easier to
treat the symptoms rather than the causes of climate change.
Professor Crutzen, however,
argues that the "grossly disappointing" international political
response to the necessity of cuts in greenhouse gas emissions means that it
should no longer be considered taboo to think about geo-engineering of the
climate.
"Importantly, its
possibility should not be used to justify inadequate climate policies, but
merely to create a possibility to combat potentially drastic climate
heating," he said. "The very best would be if emissions of the
greenhouse gases could be reduced. Currently, this looks like a pious
wish."
His plan is modelled partly
on the Mount
Pinatubo
volcanic eruption in 1991, when thousands of tons of sulphur were ejected into
the atmosphere causing global temperatures to fall.
Pinatubo generated sulphate
aerosols in the atmosphere which cooled the Earth by 0.5C on average in the
following year. The sulphate particles did this by acting like tiny mirrors,
preventing a portion of incoming sunlight from reaching the ground.
Professor Crutzen
calculated that a relatively small amount of sulphur could cause similar
cooling if it was released at high enough altitudes into the stratosphere,
rather than at the lower altitude of the troposphere. Weather balloons or even artillery
shells could be used to carry the sulphur.
"Although climate
cooling by sulphate aerosols also occurs in the troposphere, the great
advantage of placing reflective particles in the stratosphere is their long
residence time of about one to two years, compared to a week in the
troposphere," Professor Crutzen said.
"It may be possible to
manufacture a special gas that is only processed photochemically in the
stratosphere to yield sulphate," he said. Such a compound should be
non-toxic, insoluble in water, non-reactive, and have a relatively short
half-life of about 10 years.
It would cost between $25bn
and $50bn - or about $25 or $50 per head in the developed world - to launch
sufficient sulphate to last for up to two years.
But this high cost should be
measured against the much bigger costs of environmental disasters, such as
coastal flooding, caused by global warming, he said.
Side-effects could be an
increase in the destruction of the ozone layer and whitening of the sky,
although the particles would make sunsets and sunrises more spectacular, he
said.
Other 'geo-engineering'
ideas
* Reflecting mirrors:
Earth's natural reflectance
or "albedo" reflects about 30 per cent of sunlight back into space.
Increasing the albedo could be done by building giant unfolding mirrors in
space, laying reflecting film in the deserts, or floating white plastic islands
in the ocean to mimic reflective effect of sea ice.
* Swallowing up CO2:
Marine plankton absorb
carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, which the microbes need for photosynthesis.
The growth of plankton is limited by the relatively small amounts of iron in
the sea. Scientists have conducted experiments on boosting plankton by throwing
iron filings into the sea.
A fungal disease that threatens to wipe out many amphibians
is thriving because of climate change, a study suggests.
Researchers studying amphibians at a national park in Spain show that
rising temperatures are closely linked to outbreaks of the chytrid fungus.
Chytrid fungus is a major contributor to the decline of
amphibian populations around the world, threatening many species with
extinction.
Details are published in the journal Proceedings of the
Royal Society B.
"We have found an association between increasing
temperatures and amphibian disease in a mountain region in Spain,"
said Dr Matthew Fisher of Imperial College London. "This is a global emerging amphibian pathogen which is
one of the worst vertebrate infectious diseases found so far. It is causing a
huge amount of extinction and disease within amphibian populations."
More than 100 species of amphibians are known to be affected
by the chytrid fungus (Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis). Some are very
susceptible and die quickly while others which are more resistant are carriers
of the pathogen. The disease is already credited with wiping out frogs and
toads in large numbers in Australia
and South America.
Dr Fisher and his Spanish colleagues uncovered an
association between the emergence of the disease and global warming while
studying changes in the number of midwife toads in Spain's Penalara Natural
Park between 1976 and 2002.
The chytrid fungus, or BD as it is sometimes called, infects
the skins of amphibians such as frogs, toads, salamanders and newts and
interferes with their ability to absorb water. Dr Fisher said climate change could be worsening the impact
of the disease in one of two ways.
Warming temperatures could be reducing the amphibians'
ability to mount a successful immune response to the fungus. Amphibians are
cold-blooded so their ability to respond to the pathogen could change along
with the external temperature.
On the other hand, global warming could be increasing the
fungus' ability to grow faster on the amphibian and cause more disease.
"This is a wake-up call that we are losing biodiversity
fast," Dr Fisher said. "Climate change appears to be changing
patterns of disease and previously resistant species are becoming highly
infected - even, in a number of cases, becoming extinct."
The Global Amphibian Assessment has warned that a third of
the world's amphibian species are in danger of extinction, many because of the
chytrid fungus.
This article was found here:HerpDigest Volume #1 Issue #8, Wednesday November 1, 2006
The importance of eating organic fresh locally grown produce...
"In organic farming the soils are nurtured by adding organic matter, rotating crops and planting beneficial cover crops, unlike conventional farming where the soils are replenished with chemicals and synthetic additives. Organic farming works in harmony to sustain health, fertile and biologically active environment." (From www.calorganicsfarms.com)
Food certified under
U.S. Dept. of Agriculture regulations as organic must be produced
without most synthetic pesticides and fertilizers. Antibiotics, growth
hormones, and feed made from animal parts are also banned.
These are excellent films regarding Genetically Modified (GMO) Foods
PAN UK has produced a new updated poster illustrating how much
of our food is contaminated with pesticides. For example, 93% of the
(non-organic) oranges in one study had residues, and 78% of apples.
Even staple foods, such as bread, have traces of toxins. These are not
occasional findings: they are routine. The health effects of chronic
exposures to these chemicals can be serious: disorders found in studies
to be associated with pesticides include Parkinson’s disease, cancer,
suppression of endocrine function, kidney damage and neurobehavioural
deficits in children. Note: This poster is related to pesticide use in the UK not the USA.
Tip of the Week: The Most Dangerous Ingredients in Conventional Foods
1) Sodium nitrite --
causes cancer, found in most processed meats like hot dogs, bacon, sausage.
Used to make meats appear red (a color fixer chemical).
2) Hydrogenated oils --
causes heart disease, nutritional deficiencies, general deterioration of
cellular health, and much more. Found in cookies, crackers, margarine and many
"manufactured" foods. Used to make oils stay in the food, extending
shelf life. Sometimes also called "plastic fat."
3) Excitotoxins --
aspartame, monosodium glutamate and others (see below). These neurotoxic chemical
additives directly harm nerve cells, over-exciting them to the point of cell
death, according to Dr. Russell Blaylock. They're found in diet soda, canned
soup, salad dressing, breakfast sausage and even many manufactured vegetarian
foods. They're used to add flavor to over-processed, boring foods that have had
the life cooked out of them.
Source: A new book by
Mike Adams, entitled "Grocery Warning" takes a scientific look at a
plethora of problematic ingredients in the everyday foods we eat.
Virgin Komodo Dragon Gives Birth
CHESTER, England, Jan. 24, 2007
(AP) A British zoo on Wednesday announced the virgin birth of five
Komodo dragons, giving scientists new hope for the captive breeding of
the endangered species.
In an evolutionary twist, the newborns' 8-year-old mother, Flora,
shocked staff at Chester Zoo in northern England when she became
pregnant without ever having a male partner or even being exposed to
the opposite sex.
"Flora is oblivious to the excitement she has caused but we are
delighted to say she is now a mum and dad," said a delighted Kevin
Buley, the zoo's curator of lower vertebrates and invertebrates.
"When the first of the babies hatched, we didn't know whether to make her a cup of tea or pass her the cigars."
The shells began cracking last week, after an eight-month gestation
period, which culminated with arrival Tuesday of the fifth black- and
yellow-colored dragon. Two more eggs remained to be hatched.
The dragons are between 16 inches to nearly 18 inches long, weigh
between 3.5 and 4.4 ounces, said Buley, who leads the zoo's expert care
team.
He said the reptiles are in good health and enjoying a diet of crickets and locusts.
Other reptile species reproduce asexually in a process known as
parthenogenesis. But Flora's virginal conception, and that of another
Komodo dragon in April at the London Zoo, are the first documented in a
Komodo dragon.
The evolutionary breakthrough could have far-reaching consequences for endangered species.
Captive breeding could ensure the survival of the world's largest lizards, with fewer than 4,000 Komodos left in the wild.
Scientists hope the discovery will pave the way to finding other species capable of self-fertilization.
While it was not unusual for female dragons to lay eggs without mating,
scientists realized they were witnessing something important when they
discovered Flora's eggs had been fertilized.
DNA paternity tests confirmed the lack of male input, although the brood are not exact clones of Flora.
Parthenogenesis had only been noted once before in a Komodo dragon.
Genetic tests showed that Sungai, a resident of London Zoo, was the
sole parent to offspring in April.
The process has been seen in about 70 species, including snakes and lizards.
Scientists are unsure whether female Komodo dragons have always had the
ability to reproduce asexually or if this is a new evolutionary
development.
The reptiles, renowned for their intelligence, have no natural
predators - making them on par with sharks and lions at the pinnacle of
the animal kingdom.
Chester Zoo's latest star attractions will eventually be moved into a
specially built enclosure so the public can gaze at the evolutionary
miracles.
Home
A fungal disease that threatens to wipe out many amphibians
is thriving because of climate change, a study suggests.
