No Blind Date For Muffin Cataract Surgery Lets Komodo Dragon See Prospective Mate
Muffin had a cataract removed from her right eye Wednesday in possibly the first such operation on a Komodo dragon. But she may rue the day her vision was restored.
With her eyesight back, the lizard is now ready for mating, but the liaison could be extremely dangerous.
If she fails to seduce Friendty, a male Komodo dragon four times her size, he can become pretty violent and may turn her into a protein-rich meal rather than the mother of his brood.
The operation on Muffin’s eye at the South Paws Veterinary Referral Center in Springfield, Va., might be the first one ever on a Komodo dragon, said Richard Cambre, head of the animal health department at the National Zoo.
The Komodo dragons, the world’s largest species of lizard, often grow up to 10 feet and 250 pounds. Native to Indonesia, they are listed as endangered species. Muffin, who is approximately six feet and weighs 42 pounds, is on loan to the National Zoo from the Ueno Zoo in Tokyo.
Zookeepers noticed something was wrong when Muffin turned her head so she could see with her good eye. Using a drill-like object, verterinary ophthalmologist Seth Koch chopped up the lens - a procedure called phacoemulsification - and then cleaned it out with an aspirator.
“Wow! That went beautifully,” the doctor exclaimed five minutes later.
Koch said Muffin won’t feel any pain or side effects from the anesthesia and will be able to see in a few days.
Zoo biologist Trooper Walsh said the operation was essential for the lizard not only for her general well-being but also to prepare her to mate with Friendty. Besides Muffin, the National Zoo owns the only reproductive female Komodo dragon outside Australia and Indonesia.
“Muffin represents a new bloodline, new genes, which we’d like to breed for genetic diversity. She’s unrelated to any of the offspring that we produced,” said Walsh.
But Muffin has not been able to reproduce because her ovaries are inactive, said Walsh. At 21, she also is considered too old.
Walsh said the zoo plans to inject her with hormones and monitor the ovaries with ultrasound every week to see if she’s responding to the hormone treatment. That also would be the first procedure of its kind on this type of animal.
Walsh said he was not certain the procedure would be successful.
“It’s very iffy with this animal because she’s so old. Even if she ovulates we don’t know if she’s going to produce good eggs. We don’t know if the male is going to like her. They’re not that different from people. They pick their mates,” he said.
Muffin and 16-year-old Friendty will be introduced after the hormone injections.
“The operation was important because she was blind in that eye and for her to be with a male four times her size, if he were to become aggressive she needs to be able to have all her faculties in order to avoid getting hurt,” said Walsh.