One of Washington’s small wonders, a water dragon that was born by a process that might challenge the imagination, has died at the National Zoo, according to an announcement Friday from the zoo.
The female parent did not breed with a male, and male genetic material was not provided, the zoo said.
Instead, the resulting female was born through a process known as parthenogenesis, when females produce an offspring on their own.
The dragon’s birth, which came during a study of fertility, was said to result from a special type of parthenogenesis, called facultative parthenogenesis. That meant it was the offspring of a species that could breed either with male input or without.
The water dragon is native to Southeast Asia, and its median life expectancy is 10 to 15 years, the zoo said.
But a little more than two months short of its third birthday, things went wrong for Washington’s first-of-a-kind Asian water dragon.
About 1:30 p.m. June 14, the zoo said, keepers in the zoo’s Reptile Discovery Center found it lethargic with difficulty breathing. It was taken to the zoo’s animal hospital to receive fluids, oxygen, heat and antibiotics.
Despite support and care into the evening, the animal was found dead in her enclosure about 9:45 p.m., the zoo said. The zoo said the dragon’s death was due to blood cancer.