In December 1910, the Dutch administration on the island of Java received information from the governor of the island of Flores (for civil affairs), Stein van Hensbrouck, that giant creatures unknown to science lived on the outlying islands of the Lesser Sunda archipelago.
Van Stein's report stated that in the vicinity of Labuan Badi on Flores Island, as well as on nearby Komodo Island, there lives an animal that the local natives call "buaya-darat", which means "earth crocodile".
Of course, you already guessed who we’re talking about now...
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According to local residents, some monsters reach seven meters in length, and three- and four-meter buaya darats are common. The curator of the Butsnzorg Zoological Museum at the Botanical Park of West Java Province, Peter Owen, immediately entered into correspondence with the manager of the island and asked him to organize an expedition in order to obtain a reptile unknown to European science.
This was done, although the first lizard caught was only 2 meters 20 centimeters long. Hensbroek sent her skin and photographs to Owens. In the accompanying note, he said that he would try to catch a larger specimen, although this would not be easy, since the natives were terrified of these monsters. Convinced that the giant reptile was not a myth, the zoological museum sent an animal capture specialist to Flores. As a result, the staff of the zoological museum managed to obtain four specimens of “earthen crocodiles,” two of which were almost three meters long.
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In 1912, Peter Owen published an article in the Bulletin of the Botanical Garden about the existence of a new species of reptile, naming a previously unknown spider animal Komodo dragon (Varanus komodoensis Ouwens). It later turned out that giant monitor lizards are found not only on Komodo, but also on the small islands of Rytya and Padar, lying to the west of Flores. A careful study of the archives of the Sultanate showed that this animal was mentioned in the archives dating back to 1840.
The First World War forced a halt to research, and only 12 years later did interest in the Komodo dragon resume. Now the main researchers of the giant reptile are US zoologists. In English this reptile became known as komodo dragon(comodo dragon). The expedition of Douglas Barden managed to catch a living specimen for the first time in 1926. In addition to two living specimens, Barden also brought 12 stuffed specimens to the United States, three of which are on display at the American Museum of Natural History in New York.
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Indonesian Komodo National Park, protected by UNESCO, was founded in 1980 and includes a group of islands with adjacent warm waters and coral reefs covering an area of more than 170 thousand hectares.
The islands of Komodo and Rinca are the largest in the reserve. Of course, the main celebrity of the park is the Komodo dragon. However, many tourists come here to see the unique terrestrial and underwater flora and fauna of Komodo. There are about 100 species of fish here. There are about 260 species of reef corals and 70 species of sponges in the sea.
The national park is also home to animals such as the maned sambar, Asian water buffalo, wild boar, and cynomolgus macaque.
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It was Barden who established the true size of these animals and refuted the myth of seven-meter giants. It turned out that males rarely exceed a length of three meters, and females are much smaller, their length is no more than two meters.
Many years of research have made it possible to thoroughly study the habits and lifestyle of giant reptiles. It turned out that Komodo dragons, like other cold-blooded animals, are active only from 6 to 10 am and from 3 to 5 pm. They prefer dry, well-sunny areas, and are usually associated with arid plains, savannas and dry tropical forests.
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In the hot season (May - October) they often stick to dry river beds with jungle-covered banks. Young animals can climb well and spend a lot of time in trees, where they find food, and in addition, they hide from their adult relatives. Giant monitor lizards are cannibals, and adults, on occasion, will not miss the opportunity to feast on their smaller relatives. As shelter from heat and cold, monitor lizards use burrows 1-5 m long, which they dig with strong paws with long, curved and sharp claws. Tree hollows often serve as shelters for young monitor lizards.
Komodo dragons, despite their size and external clumsiness, are good runners. Over short distances, reptiles can reach speeds of up to 20 kilometers, and over long distances their speed is 10 km/h. To reach food at a height (for example, on a tree), monitor lizards can stand on their hind legs, using their tail as a support. Reptiles have good hearing and sharp eyesight, but their most important sense organ is smell. These reptiles are able to smell carrion or blood at a distance of even 11 kilometers.
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Most of the monitor lizard population lives in the western and northern parts of the Flores Islands - about 2000 specimens. On Komodo and Rinca there are approximately 1000 each, and on the smallest islands of the group, Gili Motang and Nusa Koda, there are only 100 individuals.
At the same time, it was noticed that the number of monitor lizards has fallen and individuals are gradually becoming smaller. They say that the decline in the number of wild ungulates on the islands due to poaching is to blame, so monitor lizards are forced to switch to smaller food.
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Of the modern species, only the Komodo dragon and the crocodile monitor attack prey significantly larger than themselves. The crocodile monitor's teeth are very long and almost straight. This is an evolutionary adaptation for successful bird feeding (breaking through dense plumage). They also have serrated edges, and the teeth of the upper and lower jaws can act like scissors, making it easier for them to dismember prey in the tree where they spend most of their lives.
Venomtooths are poisonous lizards. Today there are two known types of them - the gila monster and the escorpion. They live primarily in the southwestern United States and Mexico in rocky foothills, semi-deserts and deserts. Toothworts are most active in the spring, when their favorite food, bird eggs, appears. They also feed on insects, small lizards and snakes. The poison is produced by the submandibular and sublingual salivary glands and travels through the ducts to the teeth of the lower jaw. When biting, the teeth of the poisonous teeth - long and curved back - enter the body of the victim almost half a centimeter.
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The menu of monitor lizards includes a wide variety of animals. They eat practically everything: large insects and their larvae, crabs and storm-washed fish, rodents. And although monitor lizards are born scavengers, they are also active hunters, and often large animals become their prey: wild boars, deer, dogs, domestic and feral goats, and even the largest ungulates of these islands - Asian water buffalos.
Giant monitor lizards do not actively pursue their prey, but more often hide it and grab it when it approaches at close range.
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When hunting large animals, reptiles use very intelligent tactics. Adult monitor lizards, emerging from the forest, slowly move towards grazing animals, stopping from time to time and crouching to the ground if they feel that they are attracting their attention. They can knock down wild boars and deer with a blow of their tail, but more often they use their teeth - inflicting a single bite on the animal’s leg. This is where success lies. After all, now the “biological weapon” of the Komodo dragon has been launched.
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It has long been believed that the prey is ultimately killed by pathogens found in the monitor lizard's saliva. But in 2009, scientists found that in addition to the “deadly cocktail” of pathogenic bacteria and viruses found in saliva, to which monitor lizards themselves have immunity, reptiles are poisonous.
Research led by Bryan Fry from the University of Queensland (Australia) has shown that in terms of the number and types of bacteria typically found in the mouth of the Komodo dragon, it is not fundamentally different from other carnivores.
Moreover, as Fry states, the Komodo dragon is a very clean animal.
Komodo dragons, which inhabit the islands of Indonesia, are the largest predators on these islands. They hunt pigs, deer and Asian buffalo. 75% of pigs and deer die from the bite of a monitor lizard within 30 minutes from loss of blood, another 15% - after 3-4 hours from the poison secreted by its salivary glands.
A larger animal, a buffalo, when attacked by a monitor lizard, always, despite deep wounds, leaves the predator alive. Following his instinct, the bitten buffalo usually seeks refuge in a warm pond, the water of which is teeming with anaerobic bacteria, and eventually succumbs to infection that penetrates into its legs through the wounds.
Pathogenic bacteria found in the oral cavity of the Komodo dragon in previous studies, according to Fry, are traces of infections entering its body from contaminated drinking water. The amount of these bacteria is not enough to cause the death of a buffalo from a bite.
The Komodo dragon has two venom glands in its lower jaw that produce toxic proteins. When these proteins enter the victim's body, they prevent blood clotting, lower blood pressure, promote muscle paralysis and the development of hypothermia. The whole thing leads the victim to shock or loss of consciousness. The venom gland of Komodo dragons is more primitive than that of poisonous snakes. The gland is located on the lower jaw under the salivary glands, its ducts open at the base of the teeth, and do not exit through special channels in the poisonous teeth, like in snakes.
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In the oral cavity, poison and saliva mix with decaying food debris, forming a mixture in which many different deadly bacteria multiply. But this is not what surprised scientists, but the poison delivery system. It turned out to be the most complex of all similar systems in reptiles. Instead of injecting it with one blow with its teeth, like poisonous snakes, monitor lizards have to literally rub it into the wound of the victim, making jerks with their jaws. This evolutionary invention has helped giant monitor lizards survive for thousands of years.
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After a successful attack, time begins to work for the reptile, and the hunter is left to follow the heels of the victim all the time. The wound does not heal, the animal becomes weaker every day. After two weeks, even such a large animal as a buffalo has no strength left, its legs give way and it falls. It's time for a feast for the monitor lizard. He slowly approaches the victim and rushes at him. His relatives come running to the smell of blood. In feeding areas, fights often occur between males of equal value. As a rule, they are cruel, but not deadly, as evidenced by the numerous scars on their bodies.
For humans, a huge head covered like a shell, with unkind, unblinking eyes, a toothy gaping mouth, from which protrudes a forked tongue, constantly in motion, a lumpy and folded body of a dark brown color on strong splayed paws with long claws and a massive tail. is the living embodiment of the image of extinct monsters of distant eras. One can only be amazed how such creatures could survive today practically unchanged.
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Paleontologists believe that 5-10 million years ago, the ancestors of the Komodo dragon appeared in Australia. This assumption fits well with the fact that the only known representative of large reptiles is Megalania prisca measuring from 5 to 7 m and weighing 650-700 kg was found on this continent. Megalania, and the full name of the monstrous reptile can be translated from Latin as “great ancient tramp”, preferred, like the Komodo dragon, to settle in grassy savannas and sparse forests, where he hunted mammals, including very large ones, such as diprodonts, various reptiles and birds. These were the largest poisonous creatures that ever existed on Earth.
Fortunately, these animals became extinct, but their place was taken by the Komodo dragon, and now it is these reptiles that attract thousands of people to come to the islands forgotten by time to see the last representatives of the ancient world in natural conditions.
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Indonesia has 17,504 islands, although these numbers are not definitive. The Indonesian government has set itself the difficult task of conducting a complete audit of all Indonesian islands without exception. And who knows, maybe at the end of it, animals unknown to people will still be discovered, perhaps not as dangerous as Komodo dragons, but certainly no less amazing!
2012 is the year of the dragon according to the Chinese calendar and the dragon is the only animal that is completely fictional. Or not?
These six amazing dragons, although they do not quite correspond to the stereotypes of winged, scaly, fire-breathing reptiles, are real and, either by their appearance or by their name, represent the most real dragons.
1. Dragonfly
Dragonflies got their name from ancient folklore, which depicted them as distant descendants of extinct dragons. Many European legends described dragonflies in an unsightly light, calling them colloquially by various names such as Horse Stinger, Eye stealer, Eye Cutter and Devil's darning needle.
On the other hand, Chinese and Japanese folk tales associate dragonflies with prosperity, harmony, agility and strength.
Although dragonflies are predators and a threat to mosquitoes, they do not bite humans and there is no need to be afraid of them. However, everything was different 325 million years ago, when the huge insect-like ancestors of dragonflies from the order had a wingspan of more than a meter and ate everything that moved on the ground, including our primitive amphibian ancestors.
2.Bearded Dragon
Their gaping mouth, spiky skin and terrifying appearance make them feel like real dragons; there is only one drawback that spoils everything - their size.
They grow up to 60 cm and look as if they had just stepped out of a low-budget monster movie from the 1950s.
Bearded dragons are very popular as pets, although they are prohibited from being exported outside of Australia, where they live. There are seven different species of these animals, some of which have a kind of hood, which, when blossomed, gives them an even greater resemblance to a dragon.
3. Sea Dragon
Sea dragons are tropical fish that come in two types - leafy and grassy - and are related to what for some reason is called the seahorse. Leafy ones can reach a length of 24 cm, while herbal ones grow up to 45 cm.
Both sea dragons and seahorses resemble each other with a horse-like head shape, but dragons are more successful at camouflage. They have acquired numerous spines and ribs, which enhances their resemblance to their mythical ancestor, but does not make them any more frightening. Sea dragons are just as safe as their relatives, seahorses.
4. Chinese water dragon
The signs of the Chinese zodiac are divided into five different elements, which alternate every 12 years, so in 2012 the Chinese water the dragon receives additional status. These representatives of the animal world can grow up to 90 cm in length, two-thirds of which is the tail.
The Chinese water dragon is a graceful green lizard with jagged spines on its back. She prefers to live in tropical forests, in close proximity to ponds and rivers. In case of danger, they simply jump into the water and hide in it.
As the Chinese dragon ages, it develops rainbow-colored spots on its neck, usually red, orange, or pink. Their beauty and relative docile nature make them good pets, if you are a reptile lover of course. However, keep in mind that if you scare the Chinese dragon, it runs very fast on its short legs.
5. Mandarin Dragonet
Mandarin ducks (or tangerine dragonets) are one of the types of bottom-dwelling fish that do not have scales. But they have bright colors, wide fins and a triangular head, which once reminded someone of a dragon. Some mandarin ducks have amazing multi-colored colors, for which they could be called psychedelic dragons.
These are very beautiful fish, but, unfortunately, they survive very poorly in aquariums. Another dragon that is difficult to get into your home...
6. Komodo Dragons
We would call these creatures “terrible lizards,” but this name is already taken by “dinosaurs” (which is translated from Latin in exactly the same way). If only there was another more appropriate name for these huge, predatory and poisonous reptiles... Komodo dragons grow up to 3 meters in length, zoologists call this island gigantism.
Although Komodo dragons are taxonomically classified as monitor lizards, I think they are the most similar to dragons of any living animal.
Really, do you know anything outside of Anne McCaffrey's Riders of Pern that could chew a buffalo whole?
Komodo dragons are fairly well protected from poachers on their two islands. But lack of food increasingly forces them to attack people, which makes them quite dangerous animals.
free translation (c)
The largest monitor lizard on Earth lives on the Indonesian island of Komodo. The locals nicknamed this large lizard “the last dragon” or “buaya darat”, i.e. "a crocodile crawling on the ground." There are not many Komodo dragons left in Indonesia, so since 1980 this animal has been included in the IUCN.
What does a Komodo dragon look like?
The appearance of the most gigantic lizard on the planet is very interesting - the head is like a lizard, the tail and paws are like an alligator, the muzzle is very reminiscent of a fairy-tale dragon, except that fire does not erupt from its huge mouth, but there is something bewitchingly scary in this animal. An adult Komod monitor lizard weighs over one hundred kilograms and can reach three meters in length. There are known cases when zoologists came across very large and powerful Komodo dragons, weighing one hundred and sixty kilograms.
The skin of monitor lizards is mostly gray with light spots. There are individuals with black skin color and with yellow small drops. The Komodo lizard has strong, “dragon” teeth, all serrated. Just once, looking at this reptile, you can be seriously frightened, since its menacing appearance directly “screams” to be captured or killed. It's no joke, the Komodo dragon has sixty teeth.
This is interesting! If you catch a Komodo giant, the animal will become very excited. From a previously seemingly cute reptile, the monitor lizard can turn into an angry monster. He can easily, with the help of , knock down the enemy who grabbed him, and then mercilessly injure him. Therefore, it is not worth the risk.
If you look at the Komodo dragon and its small legs, you can assume that it moves slowly. However, if the Komodo monitor feels danger, or he spots a worthy victim in front of him, he will immediately try to accelerate to a speed of twenty-five kilometers per hour in a few seconds. One thing can save the victim, fast running, since monitor lizards cannot move quickly for a long time, they become very exhausted.
This is interesting! The news has repeatedly mentioned killer Komodo dragons that attacked people when they were very hungry. There was a case when large monitor lizards entered villages, and, noticing children running away from them, caught up and tore them apart. The following story also happened when a monitor lizard attacked hunters who had shot a deer and were carrying the prey on their shoulders. The monitor lizard bit one of them to take away the desired prey.
Komodo dragons are excellent swimmers. There are eyewitnesses who claim that the lizard was able to swim across the raging sea from one huge island to another within a few minutes. However, to do this, the monitor lizard needed to stop for about twenty minutes and rest, since it is known that monitor lizards get tired quickly
Origin story
People started talking about Komodo dragons at the time when, at the beginning of the 20th century, on the island. Java (Holland) received a telegram from the manager that in the Lesser Sunda Archipelago there live huge, either dragons or lizards, which scientific researchers have not yet heard of. Van Stein from Flores wrote about this, that near the island of Flores and on Komodo there lives a “land crocodile” still incomprehensible to science.
Local residents told Van Stein that monsters inhabit the entire island, they are very ferocious, and they are feared. Such monsters can reach 7 meters in length, but Komodo dragons that are four meters long are more common. Scientists from the Zoological Museum of Java decided to ask Van Stein to gather people from the island and get a lizard that European science did not yet know about.
And the expedition managed to catch a Komodo dragon, but it was only 220 cm tall. Therefore, the searchers decided, at all costs, to get the giant reptiles. And they eventually managed to bring 4 large Komodo crocodiles, each three meters, to the zoological museum.
Later, in 1912, everyone already knew about the existence of the giant reptile from the published almanac, in which a photograph of a huge lizard was printed with the caption “Komodo dragon.” After this article, Komodo dragons also began to be found in the vicinity of Indonesia, on several islands. However, only after the Sultan’s archives were studied in detail, it became known that giant foot-and-mouth disease was known as early as 1840.
It so happened that in 1914, when the world war began, a group of scientists had to temporarily close the research and capture of Komodo dragons. However, 12 years later they started talking about Komodo dragons in America and called them “dragon comodo” in their native language.
Habitat and life of the Komodo dragon
For over two hundred years now, scientists have been studying the life and habits of the Komodo dragon, and also studying in detail what and how these giant lizards eat. It turned out that cold-blooded reptiles do nothing during the day; they are active in the morning until the sun rises and only from five in the evening they begin to look for prey. Komodo monitor lizards do not like moisture; they mainly settle where there are dry plains or live in tropical forests.
The giant Komodo reptile is initially clumsy, but can reach unprecedented speeds, up to twenty kilometers. Even alligators don't move fast like that. They also find food easy to eat if it is at a high altitude. They calmly rise on their hind legs and, relying on their strong and powerful tail, get food. They can smell their future victim very far away. They can also smell blood at a distance of eleven kilometers and notice the victim far away, since their hearing, sight, and smell are excellent!
Monitor lizards love to eat any tasty meat. They will not refuse one large rodent or several, and will even eat insects and larvae. When all the fish and crabs are washed ashore by a storm, they are already scurrying here and there along the shore to be the first to eat the “seafood”. Monitor lizards feed mainly on carrion, but there have been cases when dragons have attacked wild sheep, water buffalo, dogs and feral goats.
Komodo dragons do not like to prepare for a hunt in advance; they stealthily attack the prey, grab it and quickly drag it to their shelter.
Reproduction of monitor lizards
Monitor lizards mate mainly in warm summer, in mid-July. Initially, the female is looking for a place where she can safely lay her eggs. She does not choose any special places; she can take advantage of the nests of wild chickens living on the island. By sense of smell, as soon as the female Komodo dragon finds the nest, she buries the eggs so that no one will find them. Nimble wild boars, which are accustomed to destroying bird nests, are especially greedy for dragon eggs. Since the beginning of August, one female monitor lizard can lay more than 25 eggs. The weight of the eggs is two hundred grams and ten or six centimeters in length. As soon as the female monitor lizard lays her eggs, he does not leave them, but waits until her cubs hatch.
Just imagine, the female waits all eight months for the cubs to be born. Small dragon lizards are born at the end of March and can reach 28 cm in length. Small lizards do not live with their mother. They settle in tall trees and eat what they can. Cubs are afraid of adult alien monitor lizards. Those who survived and did not fall into the tenacious clutches of hawks and snakes swarming on the tree begin to independently search for food on the ground after 2 years, when they grow up and get stronger.
Keeping monitor lizards in captivity
It is rare that giant Komodo dragons are domesticated and placed in zoos. But, surprisingly, monitor lizards quickly get used to humans, they can even be tamed. One of the representatives of the monitor lizards lived in the London Zoo, freely ate from the hands of the beholder and even followed him everywhere.
Nowadays, Komodo dragons live in the national parks of Rindja and Komodo islands. They are listed in the Red Book, so hunting these lizards is prohibited by law, and according to the decision of the Indonesian committee, the capture of monitor lizards is carried out only with a special permit.
Komodo is a small island in Indonesia, famous throughout the world for its giant monitor lizards or dragons. These are the largest lizards on earth, growing up to 3 meters in length and weighing 150 kilograms. Their bite is poisonous and they are dangerous to humans.
Because adult dragons have a very good sense of smell, they can locate the source of the scent of blood up to 5 km away. There have been several documented cases of Komodo dragons attempting to attack tourists with minor open wounds or scratches. A similar danger threatens women who visit the island while on their menstrual cycle...
We approached the island early in the morning. For some reason, I imagined it to be flat and rocky, but it turned out to be green and hilly, similar to Tolkien’s Interland:
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There is no port on the island and we stopped at a roadstead. The pies of the natives immediately approached us:
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Some were simply watching the huge white ship with interest, while others were trying to sell local beads and wood crafts:
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At first, I didn’t understand how they were going to take money from me and give me goods, given that the open deck of the ship is at the height of the 5th floor:
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Everything fell into place when we got into the boats to get to the shore:
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There was no pier where our liner could moor on the Island, and we were taken ashore on Tenders (lifeboats):
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Each boat can comfortably accommodate 80 passengers. In case of an emergency, if the boat needs to be used for its intended purpose, 2 times more is placed here:
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There is a small fishing village on the island where about 700 people live. They were all fenced off from tourists with an invisible fence so that they wouldn’t pester too much with their souvenirs for “van dola!”:
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Souvenirs could be purchased both from local children and in a civilized manner - in a beach store:
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Several rangers and locals accompanied us deeper into the island. The locals had long sticks with a spear at the end in their hands. They use them to defend themselves from dragons. In the event of an attack, they push their horn into the dragon’s eyes and push it away from them:
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On the territory of the park in the jungle there are paths along which tourists are led:
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These are not bananas, but the fruits of the cotton tree:
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When they ripen, they open up and look like large lumps of cotton wool:
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On Komodo Island there are not only giant lizards, but also specimens of quite familiar sizes:
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I was too lazy to change the lens. These ants were filmed at 500:
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Flying lizard:
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Deer are the most favorite food of dragons. Having tracked a deer, wild boar or buffalo in the bushes, the dragon attacks and seeks to inflict a lacerated wound on the animal, into which poison and many bacteria from the monitor lizard’s oral cavity are introduced. Even the largest male dragons do not have enough strength to immediately defeat a large ungulate animal, but as a result of such an attack, the victim’s wound becomes inflamed, blood poisoning occurs, the animal gradually weakens and after a while dies. The only thing left for the monitor lizards is to follow the victim until it dies. The time it takes for it to die varies depending on its size. For example, in a buffalo, death occurs after 3 weeks.
At one time, they conducted an experiment and tried to feed the monitor lizards with brought deer, but they began to get sick and die. For some reason, they can only eat local animals:
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In total, about 1,000 passengers descended on the island. We were divided into groups of 25 people and driven along the same route with an interval of 5 minutes:
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Dragons were “prepared” for us along the route in advance. If you look closely at their bellies, you will see that they have recently eaten a hearty meal and simply cannot move:
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The Komodo dragon is an amazing and truly unique animal, which is not without reason called a dragon. The largest living lizard spends most of its time hunting. It is an object of pride for the islanders and a constant source of interest for tourists.
Our article will tell you about the life of this dangerous predator, the characteristics of its behavior and characteristics characteristic of the species.
Appearance
The photos of Komodo monitor lizards given in our article help to understand why the locals nicknamed this reptile a land crocodile. These animals are indeed comparable in size.
Most adult Komodo dragons reach 2.5 meters in length, while their weight barely exceeds half a centner. But among the giants there are record holders. There is reliable information about the Komodo dragon, whose length exceeded 3 meters and weight reached 150 kg.
Only a specialist can visually distinguish a male from a female. Sexual dimorphism is practically not expressed, but male monitor lizards are usually slightly more massive. But any tourist arriving on the island for the first time can determine which of the two monitor lizards is older: young animals are always brighter in color. In addition, with age, wrinkles and leathery growths form on dull skin.
The body of the monitor lizard is squat, stocky, with very powerful limbs. The tail is mobile and strong. The paws are topped with huge claws.
The huge mouth looks menacing, even when the monitor lizard is calm. The nimble forked tongue that emerges from it every now and then is described by many eyewitnesses as creepy and frightening.
Story
Giant monitor lizards were first discovered on Komodo Island in the early 20th century. Since then, scientists have continued to study the species.
It has been established that the history of the development and evolution of monitor lizards is connected with Australia. The species diverged from its historical ancestor approximately 40 million years ago, then emigrated to the distant mainland and nearby islands.
Later the population shifted to the islands of Indonesia. This may be due to natural phenomena or a decline in the populations of species of food interest to monitor lizards. In any case, the fauna of Australia only benefited from such a relocation - many species were literally saved from extinction. But the Indonesian ones were unlucky: many scientists associate their extinction with predators of the Varanus genus.
Modernity has successfully mastered new territories and feels great.
Features of behavior
Monitor lizards are diurnal and prefer to sleep at night. Like other cold-blooded animals, they are sensitive to temperature changes. Hunting time comes at dawn. Leading a solitary lifestyle, monitor lizards are not averse to joining forces while chasing game.
It may seem that Komodo dragons are clumsy, fat creatures, but this is far from the case. These animals are unusually hardy, agile and strong. They are capable of reaching speeds of up to 20 km/h, and while they run, the earth, as they say, trembles. Dragons feel no less confident in the water: swimming to the neighboring island is not a problem for them. Sharp nails, strong muscles and a tail-balancer help these animals to climb trees and steep rocks perfectly. Needless to say, how difficult it is for the victim he has his eye on to escape from a monitor lizard?
Dragon life
Adult Komodo dragons live separately from each other. But once a year the flock converges. The period of love and creation of families begins with bloody battles in which it is simply impossible to lose. The fight can end either in victory or death from wounds.
No other animal is dangerous for the monitor lizard. In their natural habitat, these animals do not know anyone stronger than themselves. People don't hunt them either. Only another dragon can kill a dragon.
Mating games of titans
The monitor lizard who defeats his opponent can choose a girlfriend with whom he will have children. The pair will build a nest, the female will guard the eggs for about eight months, which may be encroached upon by small nocturnal predators. By the way, relatives are also not averse to enjoying such a delicacy. But as soon as the babies are born, the mother will leave them. They will have to survive on their own, relying only on the ability to camouflage and run.
Monitor lizards do not form permanent pairs. The next mating season will begin from scratch - that is, with new battles in which more than one dragon will die.
Komodo dragon on the hunt
This animal is a real killing machine. The Komodo Islands can even attack those that are significantly larger than them, such as buffalos. After the death of the victim, a feast ensues. Monitor lizards eat the carcass, tearing off and swallowing huge pieces.
It is noteworthy that most predators prefer one thing - either fresh meat or carrion. The monitor lizard's digestive system is capable of coping with both. Giants enjoy feasting on carcasses brought by the sea.
Deadly poison
Powerful jaws, muscles and claws are not the monitor lizard’s only weapons. Unique saliva can be called a real pearl of the arsenal. It contains not only huge doses (probably obtained from eating carrion), but also poison.
For a long time, scientists were confident that the death of a bitten victim was due to simple sepsis. But recently the presence of poisonous glands was discovered. The amount of poison is small and causes instant death only in small animals. But the dose received is enough to trigger irreversible processes.
Monitor lizards are not only excellent tacticians, but also amazing strategists. They know how to wait, sometimes hanging around near the victim for 2-3 weeks and watching how she slowly dies.
Coexistence with man
A natural question arises: can a Komodo dragon kill a woman, man or teenager? The answer, unfortunately, is yes. The mortality rate of a monitor lizard bite exceeds 90%. The poison is especially dangerous for a child.
But modern medicine has an antidote. Therefore, in case of an unsuccessful attempt to make friends with a monitor lizard, you should immediately go to the hospital. The death of a person from a bite is not such a common occurrence these days. As a rule, it occurs if a person hopes that he can cope with the illness. Doctors strongly recommend not to take risks; human immunity is not designed to withstand such stress as the venom of an exotic lizard.
This should be remembered not only by tourists, but also by those who decide to place an unusual pet at home. The intensive care unit of a district hospital may simply not have the necessary antidote, so a preliminary consultation with a competent breeder is extremely necessary.
Monitor lizards in the reserve
No matter how sad it may sound, the formidable predator takes its place in the Red Book. Monitor lizards are protected at the state level. But on the islands of Komodo, Flores, Gili Motang and Rinca, huge reserves have been created in which giants live for their own pleasure. Despite the security and work of a team of professionals, cases of attacks on people are sometimes recorded. This often occurs due to excessive human attention to eating or fighting predators. A camera flash or noise can trigger an attack.
Therefore, if you intend to admire Komodo dragons, follow the rules of the reserve and listen to the advice of the instructor.
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