ZOO keepers have got their fingers crossed for a new arrival following a mating session between two Komodo dragons.

Telu and Mutu met for a fiery encounter and their time spent together went well.

A spokesman said: “Mixing sessions will continue in the hope that keepers will see mating repeated, and with a successful mating, we would hope to see our female, Mutu, produce a clutch of eggs which would then be incubated for a period of around nine months before hatching if successfully fertilised.”

Colchester Zoo signed up to the european endangered species programme for the dragons due to species numbers declining in the wild.

Several new arrivals are already getting used to life at the zoo following the births of three red river hog piglets and a new aardvark.

The start of the hatching season has begun for the penguins with the first successful hatching of penguin chicks to one of the established breeding pairs.

There is also a new lemur living in the new Lost Madagascar lemur walkthrough.