All the best! On May 30, 2017, the dragon turned 1 year old, surpassing the other 20 surviving siblings. It hatched exactly 124 days after the first laid egg was observed on the glass of the large exhibition aquarium in Postojna Cave. Over the next eight weeks, for the first time in the history of Postojna Cave, they monitored the hatching of as many as 22 young human fish larvae.
Dragons from Postojna Cave
The youngster from the Postojna underground immediately became famous as "Dragons from Postojna Cave" according to legend and folk tradition, which he had already written down Janez Vajkard Valvasor. The whole world, both the lay and the professional public, closely monitored (and still monitors) the development of larvae in a special cave laboratory, which is due to the successful development and number of surviving dragons - there are 21 – received many praise from experts.
Development
Dragons were followed on their way from eggs, embryos and larvae - without fully developed limbs, with a lot of yolk and without the ability to feed independently - to young human fish, which today measure good seven centimeters and they prey like real dragons. If they looked like "spotted tadpoles" a year ago, today they look exactly like adult human fish. The body and head are elongated, they have paws on the front legs three fingers, and on the last ones after two. They have entered a period of youth that will last for several years. They differ from their parents only in small things eye, pigment, which is already slowly disappearing, and sizes. They are miniature adult human fish and will retain this larval appearance until the end of life.
'DRAGON GUARDS' DESCRIBE 2016 AS EXCITING
January 30, 2016 are on the glass of the cave aquarium below Concert hall noticed the first egg. The remaining human fish were immediately removed from the aquarium, and the aquarium was covered with a dark cloth to give the mother dragon as much peace as possible to lay down. In the next eight weeks the female just hatched in the aquarium 64 eggs. Of these, embryo development continued in 22 eggs. After the first pup hatches May 30 all 22 chicks hatched in about a month and a half (July 14 the last one hatched). Even before hatching, the eggs were moved to a special cave laboratory in order to return the relocated human fish to the large aquarium and provide the larvae with optimal conditions for development. The puppies are still successfully developing in the laboratory, so they are happy in the Postojna Cave that everything is going as it should.
Life in the caves is slow and calm, yet exciting, and so is the life of young dragons. The first year was more tense, full of events, changes and rapid development. Now everything has calmed down a little and the development is going well, and all the time they are carefully monitored and every event that could bring new interesting insights into the life of human fish is recorded. In the following years, the dragons will lose their eyes as their skin covers them, they will also lose their grayish pigment and become completely transparent. They will reach sexual maturity in the next 14 years and will live to be at least 100 years old - these are our wishes, of course. Good luck, dragons!
More information:
postojnska-jama.eu
