By: Daniel Hiller

The Komodo dragon was first discovered to the scientific world by accident. During the First World War a pilot crashed into Indonesian waters and swam to safety to a nearby island. What he didn’t realize at first was that this island he found was not safe! He soon found out that these giant lizards never seem to most of the world before lived on the island. Luckily, the pilot was able to radio to home and was picked up but no one believed his "dragon" story. Later, an expedition was formed and his reports were confirmed.

Varanus komodoensis is the largest living reptile in the entire world! These so-called "dragons" are the perfect hunting machines. The largest male ever found was 3 m long and weighed 130 kg. The average mature male is about 2.5 m long and weighs about 90 kg. The average mature female is about 1.5 m long and weighs about 45 kg. All genders are well-muscled animals and equipped with razor sharp claws. The Indonesian calls Komodo dragon’s oras. In Latin "ora" means mouth. "Mouth" explains it all. The Komodo has hinged jaws for eating very quickly and a row of saw-like, serrated teeth. No other lizard has a mouth like the Komodo. Their teeth are much like that of a shark. They can regenerate teeth if they are lost. Their saliva is very unique also. It contains four forms of deadly bacteria that no known antibiotics can cure. The bacteria cause major blood poisoning, which on average cause death in a week if the animal gets away. Oras are cannibals also. They will often eat their young and smaller oras. They have short powerful legs for climbing, swimming, and running. A Komodo can run faster then 15 mph. Komodos are the only animal, besides humans, that willingly control their population (by way of eating their own eggs). They have long forked tongues. The life span of the Komodo dragon is anywhere from twenty to one hundred years. They are cold-blooded carnivores and also have a very powerful tail, used for whipping prey and swimming. Apart from size the only way of telling the difference between the male and female is the different arrangement of scales around the genital opening. The skin of the Komodo is very thick and tough with a beaded like texture. The colors of the skin are usually black, green or gray, with patches of yellow or brown. Komodos are diurnal and solitary. The Komodo is an endangered species and there are only around five to six thousand left worldwide.

The Komodo dragon mostly lives on the Komodo Island of Indonesia. These groups of islands are called Lesser Sunda Islands. All are part of Indonesia. Komodos live in self-dug burrows in the terrain. They like hot, arid grasslands on the island. The Komodo Island is about 520 sq. km. The highest elevation is 825 m. There is only one village on the entire island where humans live. It is called the Komodo Village and they practice Muslim. Komodos are not a real threat to the village because they know and respect the Komodos. They are lived together for hundreds of years.

The diet of the Komodo dragon is somewhat simple, anything it kills! They are carnivorous and primarily feed on Sunda deer. They will also prey on birds, snakes, wild horses, wild boar, water buffalo, and very seldomly humans! There has only been one death from the village people and more from tourists. The tourists have more of a chance of an attack because they don’t really understand the Komodo dragon like the people who inhabit the islands. Komodo will also feed on any kind of carrion (already dead meat). The young Komodos feed on insects and geckos while they live in the tees.

Breeding season is from May to July. During this period the males fight for hours a day to mate with the females. She will lay her eggs in an underground, unattended nest from December to April. The female will lay around 15 to 30 eggs in each nest. Each egg is about 7.5 cm in length. When the young are first hatched they are only about 40 cm long and weigh about 100 g. No match for a grown cannibalistic male Komodo. Because of this, the young Komodo will stay in the trees and feed on geckos and insects till they reach around 1 m in length. They reside on land from there on out.

Sometimes a Komodo will bite their prey, but the prey ends up getting away. The Komodo will now rely on their trusty saliva. Remember that the Komodos saliva contains four deadly bacteria that will usually kill its escaped prey in a couple of days to a week. Once the prey gets away and dies somewhere the Komodo now relies on its uncanny sense of smell to find the rotting carcass. Dr. Walter Auffenberg was able to determine that Komodos can smell carrion up to 6.75 miles away. That is an amazing sense of smell. The main reason that Komodos are extinct is that humans kill they food Komodos eat. The Komodos have to regulate their body temperature by basking in the sun or cooling in the shade because they are cold blooded. They hunt by ambush so you always have to be on the look out. Beach lover’s becareful because Komodos will often roam the beaches in search of dead fish. Indonesia has taken a lot of measures to prevent extinction. The key in helping the Komodo dragons is preserving their environment!

Resources:

http://www.nature.ca/notebooks/english/komodo.htm

http://www.zoo.org/komodo/facts/facts.htm

http://www.zoo.org/komodo/facts/facts2.htm

http://www.scz.org/animals/d/komodo.html

http://shell.rmi.net/~shasta/komodos.htm

"Monitor." The World Book Encyclopedia Vol. 13, 1999, pg.724

"Komodo Dragon." The World Book Encyclopedia Vol. 11, 1999, pg.364