Virgin births in animals are no longer rare
Relevant Wikipedia quote [1] about New Mexico whiptail lizards:An interesting aspect to reproduction in these asexual lizards is that mating behaviors are still seen, although the populations are all female. One female plays the role played by the male in closely related species, and mounts the female that is about to lay eggs. This behaviour is due to the hormonal cycles of the females, which cause them to behave like males shortly after laying eggs, when levels of progesterone are high, and to take the female role in mating before laying eggs, when estrogen dominates.It blew my mind when I first stumbled upon it:There's a species of lesbian lizards that reproduce by cloning![1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parthenogenesis#Reptiles