Komodo Dragons compared to ours.

[Daeron the Daring]

So, I don't know how, but I ended up watching videos about komodo dragons on YouTube. And I've seen horrible things, I mean HORRIBLE, but still impessive.

It was so impressive that I decided to do a little research.

As I've began to read about them, I got the impression that maybe George used this animal as a sample for his dragons.

After all, there are many-many differences between these two, but I found some interesting facts too:

Komodo dragons, even if very rarely, practice cannibalism (The Cannibal). This made me think this way.

And as I've read further about them, I found something about I've never ever heard before. PARTHENOGENESIS: producing fertile eggs without any contact of a male.

Quote

A Komodo dragon at London Zoo named Sungai laid a clutch of eggs in late 2005 after being separated from a male company for more than two years. Scientists initially assumed she had been able to store sperm from her earlier encounter with a male, an adaptation known as superfecundation. On 20 December 2006, it was reported that Flora, a captive Komodo dragon living in the Chester Zoo in England, was the second known Komodo dragon to have laid unfertilised eggs: she laid 11 eggs, and seven of them hatched, all of them male. Scientists at Liverpool University in England performed genetic tests on three eggs that collapsed after being moved to an incubator, and verified Flora had never been in physical contact with a male dragon. After Flora's eggs' condition had been discovered, testing showed Sungai's eggs were also produced without outside fertilization. On 31 January 2008, the Sedgwick County Zoo in Wichita, Kansas, became the first zoo in the Americas to document parthenogenesis in Komodo dragons. The zoo has two adult female Komodo dragons, one of which laid about 17 eggs on 19–20 May 2007. Only two eggs were incubated and hatched due to space issues; the first hatched on 31 January 2008, while the second hatched on 1 February. Both hatchlings were males.

Do dragons work the same way? Could they?

I know Septon Barth suggested that dragons can change sex, but it seems bullshit to me. Here's why:The biggest animals being able to change sex are only a few frogs. And while parthenogenesis is very rare too at the case of big animals (I think comodo dragons are the biggest ones with this kind of ability), it ciuld still be the case.

However, parthenogenesis at the case of komodo dragons was only discovered in 2010-2011, It's not stated that George, at that time, already imagined how do dragons reproduce. And again, this ability of female komodo dragons only comes out when they are in lack of males.

[The Commentator]

Komodo dragons are an interesting species.  Their bite is almost sure to bring on an infection.  There is even a mansion on the north shore of Oahu, Hawaii named after them.  It is out of my price range.  But it may be within your budget.