00:00:05Denver Zoo after eight months in an
00:00:10incubator eggs are hatching and these
00:00:16rare baby Komodo dragons are getting
00:00:18their first glimpse of the world
00:00:22working with an animal like this that
00:00:24has very rarely been bred in captivity
00:00:26and so little is known about them that
00:00:29everything that we do is such a learning
00:00:31process that makes it very exciting for
00:00:32us Komodo dragons are notoriously
00:00:35difficult to breed in captivity catching
00:00:38these rare reptiles takes time and
00:00:40patience it’s hard to believe but when
00:00:46fully grown these tiny baby dragons turn
00:00:48into adult Komodos that weigh more than
00:00:50150 pounds and can live for over thirty
00:00:53years there may be fewer than 5,000 of
00:00:57these ancient creatures in the wild
00:00:58living on small islands in Indonesia
00:01:01with small populations like the Komodo
00:01:03dragon it’s important for us to learn as
00:01:05much as we can about not only keeping
00:01:07them alive but reproducing them and
00:01:10raising the end by keeping animals in
00:01:13breeding them we learned a lot that a
00:01:15lot of times you can’t learn from field
00:01:17biology while staff checked the
00:01:19incubators for new hatchlings the adult
00:01:22Dragons are examined closely by their
00:01:24handlers this is caster the dragon
00:01:29he’s a very curious dragon just very
00:01:33friendly as you can see he likes to be
00:01:34pet he’ll shut his eyes when I rub him
00:01:36near the head the captive Komodo seem
00:01:39gentle but handlers know better adult
00:01:43dragons have a nasty bite she’s wild
00:01:51Komodos will eat just about anything
00:01:53these zoo dragons feast on a diet
00:01:56consisting of fish and rats the baby
00:01:59Komodos will live in a nursery for now
00:02:01and move to a much larger exhibit as
00:02:04they grow any time we’ve raised babies
00:02:07from almost this size to adulthood to
00:02:10the point where they’re breeding means
00:02:13to us that we’re doing a good job these
00:02:16baby dragons are a small miracle and
00:02:19proof that some creatures truly are born
00:02:22to be wild
”