Scientists are awaiting the hatching of rare “baby dragons” in a Slovenian cave, where blind salamanders known as olms reside.
Postojna Cave, which is accessible by underground train, hasn’t seen olm eggs since 2013, and none of those
eggs hatched, The New York Times reported.
Female olms reproduce once every six years or so. Biologist Sašo Weldt called the recent discovery of olm eggs in the cave “rare and exciting.”
“I was jumping when I saw the first one and the second one. It’s something you don’t want to miss when working as a biologist in a cave,” Weldt said, according to The New York Times.
The animals, which have transparent white skin covering their eyes, are thought to live 100 years or longer and can survive without food for up to 10 years.
Olms have existed for millions of years and were thought to be
baby dragons when first documented, ABC News reported.
The mother olm has laid about 50 or 60 eggs, and three have begun to
show signs of growth, according to the BBC. She began laying eggs, which take about 120 days to hatch, on Jan. 30.
The eggs are in an aquarium in a visitor area of the cave.
"In the wild, we never find eggs or larvae. They are probably hidden within some very specific localities within the cave systems," said Dusan Jelic, a Zoological Society of London Edge Fellow who studies wild olms in Croatia, according to the BBC.
Twitter users were enthusiastic about the animals.
© 2025 Newsmax. All rights reserved.