Overview

• The female casque-headed iguana at Telford’s Exotic Zoo hatched eight babies in late August despite never sharing an enclosure with a male.
• Staff attribute the births to parthenogenesis, in which unfertilised eggs develop into embryos that are genetic copies of the mother.
• All eight hatchlings are female and are being cared for off display in the zoo’s specialist reptile nursery with controlled temperature and humidity.
• The zoo expects to debut the babies to visitors in the coming weeks, and two juveniles are slated for transfer to another zoo.
• Zoo officials call the event “one of the rarest” they have seen and plan to use it to educate visitors about genetics, evolution and conservation pressures on the species.