Zoo Dragon Misses Chance to Be a Mom

It looks like motherhood isn’t ln the cards for Muffin, a 6-foot-long Komodo dragon at the National Zoo. Muffin had cataract surgery in February to repair blindness in her right eye. The blindness, combined with her relatively small size, had made it difficult for her to mate. After her surgery--the procedure was a first for a Komodo--zoo officials had hoped fertility treatments would make it possible to breed her. At 21, she is beyond the normal breeding age for Komodos, and her ovaries are not functioning. A zoo spokesman said last week that a recent ultrasound scan showed that the condition of Muffin’s ovaries had not improved. Muffin is on loan from the Ueno Zoo in Tokyo.