Komodo Dragon Gets Prosthesis to Walk Properly

A komodo dragon that lives in the Houston zoo received a prosthesis for one of its front paws. He has a walking problem that prevents the paw in question from moving properly. With that, she was twisted with every step. The zoo's management contacted researchers at Baylor College, also in the US, who developed a kind of "flexible sling" for the lizard.

They observed the behavior, made measurements and developed a flexible device to keep Smuag's paw in the correct position. With that, he would not hurt his limb even more. After that, however, he shuffled his fingers the wrong way. Then a second prosthesis was installed on his paw to correct this second behavior.

At first Smuag's prosthesis looks like a kind of sling, but it has a different purpose, since the animal's paw could not be fully immobilized or hanging. You can see above a video of the komodo dragon still without the prosthesis and then a picture of him with the first version of the device on his paw.

Via TecMundo