A 4-foot long female komodo dragon on Sunday bit a keeper at Omaha's Henry Doorly Zoo and Aquarium, sending the employee to the hospital, Time magazine reported.

The unidentified female worker had been "performing routine animal care" when the animal attacked her from inside the cage, the facility noted.

"The keeper was transported to a local hospital where she received medical care for an animal bite and was released," the zoo detailed in a statement released on Twitter. "A complete recovery is expected," it reassured.

The animal involved was a juvenile Komodo dragon, which the zoo said weighs about 10 pounds, according to The Associated Press.

Adult dragons can weigh more than 300 pounds and reach 10 feet in length; they can also run up to 11 miles per hour in short bursts, the newswire added based on information provided by National Geographic. The large species of lizard, sometimes called "Komodo monitor," is found on a number of Indonesian islands.

The AP called the Omaha Zoo "a well-regarded facility" that hosts some 1.7 million visitors a year, and the facility's assistant general curator, Stephanie Huettner, said the injured worker needed a couple of stitches to close up a wound on her hand.

The employee has more than a decade of experience as a reptile keeper at the zoo; at the time of the incident, she was in the cage with the two young Komodos, officials told local CBS affiliate KMTV.

The bacteria-filled saliva of a Komodo is extremely dangerous and can even be fatal, but it is not common for the animals to bite, they added.

"It is not really in their nature at all," Huettner said. "For some reason, this morning they were extra excited about something and decided to take it out on their keeper."

The last time an employee had been attacked by an animal at the Omaha Zoo was in 2009, officials told KMTV. In that case, a tiger had bitten veterinarian Douglas Armstrong, who similarly received medical attention and recovered fully.