The Komodo dragon named Sumbawa became Joan Proctor's special pet and accompanied her as she walked around the zoo. She also once kept a pet chimpanzee in her home.
In 1917, woman zoologist Joan Beauchamp Procter kept snakes, frogs, and even crocodiles as pets, which was unheard of at the time! After presenting a paper to the Zoological Society of London at the age of 19, Procter went on to become ZSL London Zoo's curator of reptiles and discovered a brand-new species from Australia called the Peninsula Dragon Lizard.
Newspaper article published in the Reading Eagle on September 11, 1927, titled ” ‘Charms’ Snakes So Visitors To Zoo May See Them Better,” highlighting the work of Joan Procter at the London Zoo