Iguana's "virgin birth" hailed by zookeepers as "one of the rarest events in the animal kingdom"

An iguana at a zoo in the United Kingdom has given birth despite never having mated with a male, according to staff at the facility, who have hailed the "virgin birth" as "one of the rarest events in the animal kingdom."

Keepers at the Exotic Zoo in Telford, in central England, say the female casque-headed iguana was able to give birth to eight healthy hatchlings in the last week of August because of a natural reproductive phenomenon called parthenogenesis, which allows unfertilized eggs to grow into embryos that become genetic clones of the mother.

"This is one of the rarest events in the animal kingdom," Scott Adams, the zoo's director, said in a statement shared with CBS News.

Exotic Zoo director Scott Adams with one of the eight casque-headed iguana hatchlings born as a result of pa