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Dr. Bortrum
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https://www.gofundme.com/s3h2w8 |
01/31/2007
Brief Bits on Births
Our editor Brian Trumbore has generously given me a week off to prepare to travel with my wife on our yearly visit to Marco Island in Florida. However, in case you missed it, I thought I would note that the virgin Komodo dragon that I mentioned a few weeks ago has indeed given birth to at least five cute little lizards. Five eggs hatched and two more were unhatched when the article by Rob Harris of AP in the January 25 Star-Ledger was written. Flora, the Komodo mother and one of her little ones were pictured in the article. The baby looks a bit like the gecko in the GEICO TV commercials. Scientists have run DNA tests and confirm that there was no father involved in the conceiving of these little critters, which will grow up to be among the largest lizards on the planet.
The little dragons were born in England but a birth in Hungary was also cause for celebration. Another AP article in the same Star-Ledger reported the birth of a 128-pound rhinoceros in the Budapest Zoo. The Zoo officials tried to persuade the mother, Lulu, and a male rhino, Easyboy, to get together and they did. They apparently got along quite well and enjoyed each other’s company but it was only a platonic friendship. Hence, according to the article, the world’s first baby rhino conceived by artificial insemination. Both the virgin birth of the Komodos and the somewhat more conventional birth of the rhino have heartened scientists concerned about the dwindling numbers of both of these animals in the wild.
Next week, I’ll probably be musing about some sort of marine critter found on my beach walks on Marco.
Allen F. Bortrum
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