Ball python at Saint Louis Zoo lays eggs even though she hasn’t been around a male in years – CNN

Ball pythons are native to central and western Africa and can reproduce asexually, which is known as facultative parthenogenesis, the zoo said. Wanner said Komodo dragons and some other snakes and reptiles also reproduce asexually.

Females can also store sperm for delayed fertilization, but Wanner said the longest documented case they found of that happening was seven years after the contact.

She laid another clutch of eggs back in 2009, but none of those eggs hatched and there are no records of her being around a male then either.

Wanner said she could have been with a male in the late 1980s and early 1990s because keepers used to put the snakes together in buckets while cleaning their cages.

“We’re saying 15 plus years, but I mean, it’s probably easily closer to 30 years since she’s been physically with a male,” he said.

via www.cnn.com