It really works!  (Just not the way it’s usually intended when I say it.  I have never wished “go have babies without an independent gamete source” on anyone.)

Zoo celebrates virgin Komodo birth

MANCHESTER, England (AP) — A British zoo on Wednesday announced the virgin birth of five Komodo dragons, giving scientists new hope for the captive breeding of the endangered species.

In an evolutionary twist, the newborns’ 8-year-old mother, Flora, shocked staff at Chester Zoo in northern England when she became pregnant without ever having a male partner or even being exposed to the opposite sex.