• March 10, 1997
• Vol. 47
• No. 9

Love and Hisses

Following a Painful First Date, Muffin Sees Clearly, but Her Would-Be Lover Still Looks Like a Dragon

LOVE IS SO MUCH BETTER THE second time around—and if it isn't, Muffin the Komodo dragon is in deep trouble. Muffin, a 21-year-old female, was living in reptilian contentment in the Ueno Zoo in Tokyo until last summer, when the National Zoo in Washington, in the interest of diversifying the gene pool of U.S. Komodos, borrowed the 42-lb. five-footer and set her up on a blind date with Friendty, its 8-foot, 130-lb. male. It was not a match made in lizard heaven. Apparently, Friendty, 16, took Muffin's name literally; when he emerged from her burrow, she was dangling from his jaws. "It's possible he figured she was a better meal than a mate," says zookeeper Trooper Walsh.

Despite the dragon hickeys—Muffin's armorlike hide protected her from serious injury—zoo officials are optimistic she'll be date-ready again by spring. This time, to enhance her chances of emerging from her next rendezvous as something other than a scaly hors d'ouevre, veterinary ophthalmologist Seth Koch operated on Muffin last month to remove a cataract from her right eye. "It's in her best interest to have both eyes visual," he says.

Now that Muffin, who has never actually gone all the way can better keep track of her rogue Romeo, her keepers are planning to give her hormone treatments to stimulate her fertility—at her age she's almost at the limit of her egg-producing life. Meanwhile, Friendty who has sired 55 Komodos with another female, hangs out in his den, which is heated to simulate the climate of his native Indonesia. Occasionally the lounging lizard takes a break for a snack—up to six rats. "Rats," explains Walsh, "are like dragon candy." That being the case, perhaps Friendty should send some to Muffin. That and maybe a breath mint.