Komodo Dragon
Descended from ancestors 100 million years old, the Komodo dragon (Varanus komooensis) is a member of the monitor lizard genus and inhabits the Indonesian archipelago, particularly Komodo Island National Park on the island of Komodo in south-central Indonesia.
An adult male Komodo dragon is the largest lizard in the world. Three meters long, weighing 135 kilograms, and having long talons, stout body, and a long tail, the Komodo dragon is a formidable predator. Carnivorous, these lizards can swallow their prey whole; their diet includes everything from small insects and lizards to pig, goat, buffalo, horse, and even an occasional human being. Although they can run fast enough to reach speeds of 20 kilometers per hour, Komodo dragons usually lie camouflaged waiting to attack. The olfactory and Jacobson's (in the roof of themouth) sensory organs allow the animals to detect carcasses by perpetually flicking their forked yellow tongues, which taste and smell the surrounding air.
A Komodo dragon on Komodo Island, Indonesia. (WOLFGANG KAEHLER/CORBIS)Once thought to be poisonous, the dragons can cause fatalities only through the saliva from their bite, which may produce septicemia (from the bacteria ingested when a dragon eats carrion). A Komodo dragon can live to the age of twenty years or even longer. Unfortunately they are presently on the endangered species list.
Stacey Fox
Further Reading
Auffenberg, Walter. (1981) The Behavioral Ecology of the Komodo Monitor. Gainesville, FL: University Press of Florida.
Lutz, Judy Marie, and Richard L. Lutz. (1996) Komodo: The Living Dragon. Salem, OR: Dimi Press.
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