Scientists report of two cases where female Komodo dragons have produced offspring without male contact.

Tests revealed their eggs had developed without being fertilised by sperm ? a process called parthenogenesis, the team wrote in the journal Nature. One of the reptiles, Flora, a resident of Chester Zoo in the UK, is awaiting her clutch of eight eggs to hatch, with a due-date estimated around Christmas. Kevin Buley, a curator at Chester Zoo and a co-author on the paper, said: ?Flora laid her eggs at the end of May and, given the incubation period of between seven and nine months, it is possible they could hatch around Christmas ? which for a ?virgin birth? would finish the story off nicely. ?We will be on the look-out for shepherds, wise men and an unusually bright star in the sky over Chester Zoo.?

Flora, who has never been kept with a male Komodo dragon, produced 11 eggs earlier this year. Three died off, providing the material needed for genetic tests

These revealed the offspring were not exact genetic copies (clones) of their mother, but their genetic make-up was derived just from her. The team concluded they were a result of asexual reproduction, and are waiting for the remaining eight eggs to hatch.

Another captive-bred female called Sungai, at London Zoo in the UK, produced four offspring earlier this year ? more than two years after her last contact with a male, the scientists reported in the same paper. Again, genetic tests revealed the Komodo dragon babies, which are healthy and growing normally, were produced through parthenogenesis.