SCOTT SIMON, Host: About 70 species, including some snakes and lizards, can reportedly reproduce without assistance. The process is called parthenogenesis. But Flora and a lizard named Sungai(ph) in London are the first known Komodos. Dr. Rick Shine at the University of Sydney says Komodo dragons seem to be able to switch ways of reproducing to deal with the shortage of suitable boyfriends. It sounds like a potential plot for the next Sandra Bullock movie.
At the Chester Zoo in England, a female Komodo dragon has become pregnant without the help of a male. It's only the second time the asexual reproduction process known as parthenogenesis has occurred in Komodo dragons.