Komodo monitor lizard (giant Indonesian monitor lizard, Komodos monitor lizard) (lat.Varanus komodoensis) is the largest in the world. Predatory reptile belongs to the order of scaly, superfamily of monitors, the family of monitor lizards, the genus of monitor lizards. Its name Komodo dragon, which is also called the "dragon of the Komodo island", received one of its habitats.
Seasoned and strong monitor lizards easily cope with more impressive prey: wild boars, buffaloes, and, goats. Often, livestock gets into the teeth of adult Komodo monitor lizards, and those who come to water bodies to drink or accidentally meet this dangerous lizard on the way. The monitor lizard from Komodo Island is also dangerous for humans; cases of attacks of these predators on people are known. If food is scarce, large monitor lizards can attack smaller relatives. When eating food, the Komodo monitor lizard can swallow very large pieces due to the movable connection of the bones of the lower jaw and the spacious stomach, which has the ability to stretch.
The hunting of the Komodo monitor lizard.
The hunting principle of the Komodo monitor lizard is quite cruel. Sometimes a large predatory lizard attacks its prey from an ambush, suddenly knocking down its “future lunch” with a powerful and sharp blow of its tail. At the same time, the force of the blow is so great that often potential prey gets leg fractures. 12 out of 17 deer die on the spot when fighting a lizard. However, sometimes the victim manages to escape, although she can receive severe injuries in the form of torn tendons or lacerations in the abdomen or neck, which leads to inevitable death. The lizard's venom and the bacteria in the reptile's saliva weaken the victim. In large prey, for example, a buffalo, death can occur only 3 weeks after a fight with a monitor lizard. Some sources indicate that the giant Komodo dragon will catch up with its prey by smell and traces of blood until it is completely exhausted. Some animals manage to escape and heal their wounds, other animals fall into the clutches of predators, and still others die from wounds inflicted by the monitor lizard. The excellent sense of smell allows the Komodo dragon to smell food and the smell of blood at a distance of up to 9.5 km. And when the victim nevertheless dies, the monitor lizards come running to the smell of carrion to eat the dead animal.
The poison of the Komodo dragon.
Previously, it was believed that the saliva of the Komodo dragon contains only a harmful "cocktail" of pathogenic bacteria to which the predatory lizard is immune. However, relatively recently, scientists have determined in the monitor the presence of a pair of poisonous glands located on the lower jaw and producing special toxic proteins that cause a decrease in blood clotting in the bitten victim, hypothermia, paralysis, a decrease in blood pressure and loss of consciousness. The glands have a primitive structure: they do not have channels in the teeth, as, for example, in snakes, but open at the base of the teeth with ducts. Thus, the bite of the Komodo dragon is poisonous.
Varanus komodoensis Ouwens,
| Taxonomy on Wikisource |
Images at Wikimedia Commons |
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Lifestyle
Komodo lizards lead single image life, uniting in non-permanent groups during feeding and during the breeding season.
Komodo monitor lizard prefers dry, well-warmed by the sun areas, and, as a rule, lives on arid plains, savannas and dry rainforest, on not high altitude... In the hot season (May-October) it adheres to dry riverbeds with jungle-covered banks. Often goes to the coast in search of carrion washed ashore. Willingly enters sea water, swims well and can even swim to a neighboring island, covering a considerable distance.
When running at short distances, the monitor lizard is capable of speeds up to 20 km / h. To reach food located at a height (for example, on a tree), he can stand on hind legs using the tail as a support. Young animals climb well and spend a lot of time in trees.
Monitors use burrows 1-5 m long as shelters, which they dig with strong paws with long, curved and sharp claws. Hollows of trees serve as a refuge for young monitor lizards.
V wildlife adults have no natural enemies. Young monitor lizards are eaten by snakes, civets and birds of prey.
The natural lifespan of monitor lizards in nature is probably about 50 years. In captivity, no cases have yet been reported for the Komodo dragon to live for more than 25 years.
Nutrition
Young Komodo dragon near the carcass of an Asian water buffalo
Monitor lizards feed on a wide variety of animals - both vertebrates and invertebrates. They can eat insects (mostly Orthoptera), crabs, fish, sea turtles, lizards, snakes, birds, mice and rats, civets, deer, wild boars, feral dogs, goats, buffaloes and horses.
Cannibalism is widespread among Komodo monitor lizards, especially in hungry years: adults often eat young and smaller monitor lizards.
On the islands where Komodo monitor lizards live, there are no larger predators, so adult monitor lizards are at the top of the food chain. They hunt for relatively large prey from an ambush, sometimes knocking the victim down with blows of a powerful tail, often breaking the victim's legs. Large adult Komodo dragons feed mainly on carrion, but they often receive this carrion. in an unusual way... So, having tracked down a deer, wild boar or buffalo in the bushes, the monitor lizard attacks and seeks to inflict a lacerated wound on the animal, into which poison and many bacteria from oral cavity monitor lizard. Even the largest male monitor lizards 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. Lizards are left only to follow the victim until she dies. The time it takes for it to die differs depending on its size. In a buffalo, death occurs after 3 weeks. Monitor lizards have good sense of smell and find corpses by smell using a long forked tongue. Lizards from all over the island come running to the smell of carrion. In places of feeding, fights between males are frequent in order to establish and maintain a hierarchical order (as a rule, non-fatal, although scars and traces of wounds are noticeable).
The Komodo monitor lizard can swallow very large prey or large pieces of food, which is facilitated by the mobile connection of the bones of the lower jaw and a spacious expandable stomach.
Females and juveniles hunt smaller animals. Cubs can even stand on their hind legs to reach small animals that are too high for adult relatives.
Currently, due to the sharp decline in the number of large wild ungulates on the islands due to poaching, even adult male monitor lizards are forced to switch to smaller prey. Because of this the average size monitor lizards are gradually decreasing and now accounts for about 75% of the average size of a sexually mature individual 10 years ago. Hunger sometimes causes the death of monitor lizards.
Reproduction
Animals of this species reach sexual maturity at about the tenth year of life, to which only a small part of the born monitor lizards survive. The sex ratio in the population is approximately 3.4: 1 in favor of males. Perhaps this is a mechanism for regulating the number of the species in the conditions of island habitation. Since the number of females is much less than the number of males, during the breeding season, ritual battles for the female take place between the males. At the same time, the monitor lizards stand on their hind legs and, clasping the front limbs of the opponent, try to knock him down. In such battles, adult mature individuals usually win, young animals and very old males retreat. The male winner presses the opponent to the ground and scratches him with his claws for a while, after which the loser is removed.
Males of the Komodo monitor lizard are much larger and more powerful than females. During mating, the male jerks his head, rubs his lower jaw against her neck and scratches the back and tail of the female with his claws.
Mating takes place in winter, during the dry season. After mating, the female searches for a place to lay eggs. They are often nests of weed chickens that build compost heaps - natural incubators from dead leaves for thermoregulating the development of their eggs. Having found a pile, the female monitor lizard digs a deep hole in it, and often several, in order to distract the attention of wild boars and other predators that eat eggs. The eggs are laid in July-August, the average clutch size of the Komodo dragon is about 20 eggs. The eggs reach a length of 10 cm and a diameter of 6 cm, weighing up to 200 g. The female guards the nest for 8-8.5 months until the cubs hatch. Young lizards appear in April-May. When they are born, they leave their mother and immediately climb the neighboring trees. To avoid potentially dangerous encounters with adult monitor lizards, young monitor lizards spend the first two years of their life in tree crowns, where they are inaccessible to adults.
Parthenogenesis was found in Komodo monitor lizards. In the absence of males, the female can lay unfertilized eggs, which was observed in the Chester and London zoos of England. Since male lizards have two identical chromosomes, and females, on the contrary, are different, and at the same time a combination of identical ones is viable, all cubs will be male. Each laid egg contains either a W or a Z chromosome (in Komodo monitor lizards, ZZ is a male, and WZ is a female), then the genes are duplicated. The resulting diploid cells with two W chromosomes die, and those with two Z chromosomes develop into new lizards. The ability for sexual and asexual reproduction in these reptiles is probably associated with the isolation of the habitat - this allows them to establish new colonies if, as a result of a storm, females without males are thrown out to neighboring islands.
I
Traditionally, it was believed that the effects of Komodo dragon bites (severe inflammation at the site of the bite, sepsis, etc.) are caused by bacteria living in the mouth of the monitor. Auffenberg pointed out the presence of a Komodo dragon in saliva pathogenic microflora including Escherichia coli, Staphylococcus sp., Providencia sp., Proteus morgani and Proteus mirabilis... It has been suggested that bacteria enter the body of lizards when they feed on carrion, as well as when they feed together from other monitor lizards. But in samples from the oral mucosa obtained from the zoo lizards eating fresh food, scientists at the University of Texas found 57 different strains of bacteria found in wild monitor lizards, including Pasteurella multocida... Besides, Pasteurella multocida from the saliva of the monitor lizard showed much more intensive growth on nutrient media than that obtained from other sources.
Recently, however, Australian scientists working with related species of monitor lizards have found that at least some species of monitor lizards are themselves poisonous. In late 2005, a group of scientists from the University of Melbourne suggested that a large monitor lizard ( Varanus giganteus), other species of monitor lizards, as well as agamas, may have toxic saliva, and that the effects of the bites of these lizards were caused by mild intoxication. Studies have shown the toxic effects of the saliva of several species of monitor lizards (in particular, the spotted monitor lizard ( Varanus varius) and Varanus scalaris), as well as some agama lizards - in particular, the bearded agama ( Pogona barbata). Prior to this study, there was conflicting evidence of the toxic effects of saliva in some monitor lizards, such as gray monitor lizard (Varanus griseus).
In 2009, the same researchers published further evidence that Komodo monitors have venomous bite... MRI scans showed the presence of two venom glands in the lower jaw. They removed one of these glands from a terminally ill lizard at the Singapore Zoo and found that it secreted venom containing various toxic proteins. The functions of these proteins include inhibiting blood clotting, lowering blood pressure, muscle paralysis, and developing hypothermia, leading to shock and loss of consciousness in the bitten victim.
Some scientists have proposed a hypothetical rank-free group to unite snakes, monitor lizards, gila moths, fusiform and iguanas Toxicofera... The association is based on the presence of toxic components in saliva and assumes the presence of one ancestor for all "poisonous" groups (which is not indisputable).
The poisonous gland of monitor lizards is more primitive than that of poisonous snakes... The gland is located on the lower jaw just below salivary glands, its ducts open at the base of the teeth, rather than being expelled through special channels in poisonous teeth, like in snakes. In the mouth, poison and saliva mix with decaying food debris to form a mixture in which many different bacteria multiply.
Danger to humans
Komodo monitor lizards are one of the potentially dangerous species for humans, although they are less dangerous than crocodiles or sharks, and do not pose a direct danger to adults. Nevertheless, several cases of attacks by monitor lizards on people are known, when the monitor lizards, due to some smell, mistook a person for the usual food of the monitor lizard (carrion, birds, etc.). Komodo dragon bites are extremely dangerous. After a bite, you should immediately consult a doctor. The number of deaths due to untimely delivery medical care(and, as a result, blood poisoning) reaches 99%. Children are especially vulnerable. Monitor lizards may well kill a child under 10 years old or cause serious injury. There are documented cases of the death of children from the attack of a monitor lizard. Human settlements on the islands are few in number, but they exist and their population is growing rapidly (800 people as of 2008). As a rule, these are poor, fishing villages. In hungry years, especially in drought, monitor lizards come close to settlements. They are especially attracted by the smell of human excrement, fish, etc. There are well-known cases of lizards digging up human corpses from shallow graves. V recent times However, Muslims-Indonesians living on the islands bury the dead, covering them with dense cast cement slabs, inaccessible to monitor lizards. Jaegers usually capture individuals and move them to other areas of the island. Killing monitor lizards is prohibited by law.
Because adult monitor lizards have a very good sense of smell, they can locate the source of blood odor up to 5 km away. Several cases have been documented in which Komodo monitor lizards tried to attack tourists with minor open wounds or scratches. A similar danger threatens women who visit the islands of Komodo monitor lizards, being in the menstrual cycle. Tourists are usually warned by gamekeepers about potential danger; all groups of tourists are usually accompanied by huntsmen, armed to defend against possible attacks with long poles with a bifurcated end.
Komodo dragon on an Indonesian coin
Conservation status
Komodo monitor lizard is a narrow-range species that is endangered due to economic activity person. Listed in the IUCN Red List and Appendix I of the CITES Convention on International Trade in Views. In 1980, to protect the species from extinction, the Komodo National Park was organized, which now regularly organizes excursion, ecological and adventure tours.
see also
Notes (edit)
- Ananyeva N.B., Borkin L. Ya., Darevsky I.S., Orlov N.L. A five-language dictionary of animal names. Amphibians and reptiles. Latin, Russian, English, German, French. / under the general editorship of Acad. V.E.Sokolova. - M .: Rus. yaz., 1988. - P. 269. - 10,500 copies. - ISBN 5-200-00232-X
- A.G. Bannikov, I.S.Darevsky, M.N.Denisova Life of animals. Amphibians. Reptiles / ed. V.E.Sokolova. - 2nd ed. - M .: Education, 1985. - T. 5. - P. 245. - 300,000 copies.
- Ciofi, Claudia The Komodo Dragon (eng.). Scientific American (March 1999). Archived
- Dragon's Paradise Lost: Palaeobiogeography, Evolution and Extinction of the Largest-Ever Terrestrial Lizards (Varanidae). plosone. Archived from the original on February 21, 2012. Retrieved March 6, 2011.
- The lizards of Komodo Island turned out to be poisonous. Living water... Archived from the original on February 21, 2012. Retrieved March 6, 2011.
- BBC Life. Reptiles and amphibians. seasonvar (2009). Archived from the original on August 25, 2011. Retrieved March 6, 2011.
The Komodo monitor lizard is the largest species of lizards in existence today.
Adult specimens of Komodo monitor lizards reach a weight of 70 kg and a body length of up to 3 m. It is worth noting that this monitor lizard can be even larger in captivity.
The adult has a dark brown color with a yellow speck. The cutting edge of the monitor lizard's teeth is somewhat reminiscent of a saw blade. This structure of the tooth allows the animal to easily butcher the carcass of its prey.
The habitat of the Komodo monitor lizards
The habitat of this lizard is very localized. It is found only on the islands of Indonesia such as Flores, Rinka, Jili Motang and Komodo. From the name of the last island, in fact, the name of this species comes. Research shows that these lizards left Australia 900,000 years ago and migrated to the islands.
The lifestyle of the Komodo dragon
These lizards form groups only during the mating season and during feeding. The rest of the time, keep one by one. They are active mainly during daylight hours. Being in the shade for the first part of the day, they go hunting in the second half, when the heat subsides somewhat. They spend the night in shelters, from which they crawl out only in the morning.
The monitor lizard keeps well-lit by the sun dry areas. Usually these are savannas, dry tropical forests and arid plains. From May to October inhabits dry riverbeds. In order to profit from carrion, he often visits the coast. Varan - great swimmer... There have been cases when these lizards swam even from island to island.
Burrows up to 5 meters deep serve as a refuge for monitor lizards. Lizards dig these holes on their own. In this they are helped by their powerful paws with sharp claws. Younger monitor lizards, unable to dig similar holes for themselves, find refuge in the hollows and cracks of trees. The monitor lizard is able to develop a running speed of up to 20 km / h for a short time. To get to food at a certain height, the monitor lizard is able to climb on its hind legs.
V natural environment habitat adult lizards do not meet enemies. However, young animals can often become prey for birds of prey and snakes.
In captivity, these lizards rarely live up to 25 years, although, according to some reports, in wild conditions monitor lizards can live up to half a century.
Komodo monitor lizard nutrition
Various animals serve as food for the Komodo dragon. The diet includes fish, crabs, lizards, turtles, rats, snakes. The monitor lizard also feeds on birds and insects. From large animals, deer, horses and even buffaloes sometimes become prey. In especially hungry years, monitor lizards do not hesitate to eat individuals of their own species. In this case, the victims of cannibalism are, as a rule, very small individuals and young animals.
Adults often feed on carrion. Sometimes the method of extraction of such a fall is very interesting.
The monitor lizard, having tracked down a large animal, suddenly attacks it, inflicting wounds on it, which will get poison and bacteria from the mouth of this lizard. Then the monitor lizard goes after its prey in anticipation of its death.
Such persecution can last from several hours to several weeks. These lizards feel carrion well due to their amazingly developed scent.
Nowadays, poaching within the habitat of monitor lizards causes enormous harm and reduces the number of large ungulates. Because of this, monitor lizards are often forced to be content with smaller prey. The consequence of this state of affairs is a decrease in the average size of adults of the Komodo monitor lizard. This size has decreased by 25% over the past 10 years.
Breeding Komodo monitor lizards
Sexual maturity comes to these lizards in the tenth year of existence. Until this time, only a small part of the individuals survive. As for the sexual structure, females occupy only 23% of the entire population.
Due to the huge competition in the mating season, fights for females take place between males. These battles are often won by experienced adults. Old people and young people, as a rule, are out of work.
Mating season in lizards starts in winter time... Having mated, the female begins to search for a place for laying. Typically, these areas are compost heaps created by weed chickens as nests. These heaps are natural incubators for Komodo monitor lizard eggs. In these heaps, females dig deep holes. Laying takes place in summer period from July to August. One clutch contains about 20 eggs. With a diameter of 6 cm and a length of 10 cm, the eggs weigh about two hundred grams.
Komodo dragon(also called Komodo dragon, giant Indonesian monitor lizard) - the largest reptile in the world, and also one of the most effective "killers" in the animal kingdom. Homeland of these largest lizards is Australia, but the name was attached to them because of the island of Komodo, where they were probably first discovered, now about 1600 individuals live there. Also, these animals have been spotted on the nearby islands from Komodo Island. These Indonesian islands include: Jili Motang Island, Flores Island, Rincha Island. The total number of Komodo monitor lizards is about 5000 individuals.
Physical description of the Komodo dragon
Komodo monitor lizards have long tails, strong and dexterous necks, strong limbs. Adult Komodo monitor lizards are almost stone-colored. Growing up monitor lizards may have brighter colors. Their tongues are yellow and forked, corresponding to their draconian name.
The muscles of the lizard's jaws and throat allow it to swallow huge chunks of meat with amazing speed. Several movable joints, such as the intramandibular loop, allow the lower jaw to be opened unusually wide. The stomach expands easily, allowing adults to consume up to 80 percent of their own weight in a single meal, which likely explains some of the exaggerated claims of the enormous weight of swallowed animals. When the Komodo dragon feels threatened, it can empty its stomach contents to reduce its weight and escape.
Although males tend to grow larger and more massive than females, there are no obvious morphological differences between the sexes. However, there really is one small difference: a slight difference in weight distribution only in the front of the cloaca. Mating Komodo monitors remains a challenge for researchers, as dragons themselves seem to have some trouble figuring out who is who.
Dimensions (edit)
The Komodo dragon is the largest lizard living on Earth. Some recorded specimens reached a length of 3.13 meters (10.3 feet) and weighed 166 kg (366 lb). The largest wild Komodo monitor lizards usually weigh around 70 kg (154 lb).
Habitat
The habitat of Komodo monitor lizards is limited to several Indonesian islands, the Lesser Sunda Islands, including Rincha, Padar and Flores, and of course, Komodo Island. They live in the woods tropical savannah but are widely found on the islands, from the beach to the mountain tops.
Food habits
Their eyes can see objects very far, 300 meters (985 ft), so their vision really plays out. important role in their hunt, especially since their eyes are more focused on movement than on various stationary objects. Their retinas contain only cones, so they are able to distinguish colors, but have poor vision in dim light. They have a much smaller hearing range than humans. As a result, the animal cannot hear sounds such as low-pitched voices and high-pitched squeals.
Sight and hearing are good, but for the Komodo monitor lizard, odor is its primary food detector. The monitor lizard senses in the same way as the snake does. He uses his long yellow forked tongue to sample air, after which the two tips of the tongue stick into the palate of his mouth, where they contact with Jacobson's organ. Chemical "odor" analyzers recognize molecules in the air. If the concentration on the left side of the tip of the tongue is higher than on the right, the Komodo dragon knows that the prey is approaching from the left. This system, along with a swaying gait where the head swings from side to side, helps the monitor to sense the presence and direction of scented carrion, up to 4 km (2.5 miles) away when there is wind.
When the Komodo dragon hunts and catches its prey, such as a deer, it first attacks its legs, throwing the deer off balance. When dealing with smaller prey, it can lash right at the neck. The monitor's basic strategy is simple: try to lay the prey on the ground and tear it to pieces. Strong muscles and powerful claws help him with this, but the teeth of the Komodo dragon are his most dangerous weapons. They are large, curved and serrated and capable of tearing flesh with high efficiency. If the deer cannot immediately escape, the Komodo dragon will continue to rip it apart. After making sure that its prey is incapacitated, the monitor lizard can stop its attack for a short rest. At this time, the deer will be seriously injured and in shock. Then the monitor lizard delivers the final blow, an attack on the stomach. The deer quickly bleeds and dies, the Komodo dragon begins to eat it.
Pieces of meat, either fresh prey or falling off, are stuck in the jagged teeth of his last meal. This Protein-Rich Residue Supports Life a large number bacteria. About 50 different bacterial strains have been found, at least seven of which are septic-like. If the victim somehow escapes and escapes death when they first encounter it, there is a chance that their escape will be short-lived. The infections transmitted by the bite of the Komodo monitor will kill the victim in less than a week. In addition to bacteria in saliva, researchers recently documented that Komodo monitor lizards do have venom glands in their lower jaw. In addition to being harmed by the bacteria present in their saliva, their venom prevents blood from clotting.
Video. How the Komodo dragon hunts
The bite of a monitor lizard is not fatal to another Komodo monitor. It is believed that lizards wounded by their comrades in battle are not affected by deadly bacteria and poison. Scientists are looking for antibodies in the blood of Komodo monitor lizards that can help keep an infected victim alive.
Large carnivorous mammals such as lions typically leave 25 to 30 percent uneaten from carcasses: intestinal contents, stripped skeleton and hooves. Komodo monitor lizards eat much more efficiently, leaving only about 12 percent of the prey. They eat bones, hooves, and even hides. They also eat the intestines, but only after vigorously tearing them open to gut the contents.
Komodo dragons eat almost any kind of meat. They scavenge in rotten carcasses and hunt animals ranging in size from small rodents to large buffaloes. Young animals mainly feed on small lizards, geckos and insects. They are tertiary predators (the apex predator the food chain) and cannibals. They can detect carrion from a considerable distance, about 4 km (2.5 mi), and actively search for it. During the hunt, the Komodo dragon stays close to the trails, where he waits for a deer or wild boar to pass by. Then he attacks the prey, most of the attempts are unsuccessful, with the result that the animal escapes. However, if the monitor lizard manages to bite the prey, the toxic bacteria and poison in the saliva will kill the prey in the next few days. After the victim dies, it can take up to four days for the animal to find the dead body using its powerful sense of smell. As a rule, after the murder, many Komodo lizards resort to a feast and very little remains of the carcass of the killed animal.
At Smithsonian National Zoological Park, Komodo monitor lizards are fed weekly with rodents, chickens and rabbits. They get fish from time to time.
Social structure
Since large Komodo monitor lizards eat juveniles, juveniles often spill out in feces, thereby muffling odors so that large monitors cannot smell them.
Reproduction and development
Most mating takes place from May to August. In the group gathered around the carrion, there is an opportunity for courtship. Dominant males can be drawn into ritual battles in search of females. Using their tails for support, they wrestle upright, grabbing each other with their front legs, with which they try to throw the opponent to the ground. Blood, as a rule, changes everything and the one who started it either continues to fight, or remains submissive and motionless.
The female Komodo dragon lays about 30 eggs. Delaying styling can help avoid the dry season of the brutal hot months. In addition, unfertilized eggs can get a second chance upon subsequent mating. The female lays eggs in dug holes on mountain slopes or in the nests of most chicken-like birds making nests from soil mixed with twigs that can be 1 meter (3 feet) high and 3 meters (10 feet) wide. During the maturation of the eggs (about nine months), females can lie on the nests, protecting their future offspring. There is no evidence, but the parents of the hatched Komodo monitors do not participate in their care in any way.
Cubs weigh less than 100 grams (3.5 ounces) and average 40 centimeters (16 inches) in length. Their early years are full of danger and they often fall prey to predators, including their fellows. They eat a varied diet of insects, small lizards, snakes and birds. If they reach the age of five, they can weigh 25 kg (55 lb) and be 2 meters (6.5 ft) long. By this time, they switch to larger prey, such as rodents, monkeys, goats, wild boars and the most popular food for Komodo monitor lizards, deer. Slow growth continues throughout their lives, which can last over 30 years.
Relaxation habits
They flee the heat during the day and seek refuge at night in burrows that are slightly larger than they are.
Life span
In the wild, Komodo monitor lizards live for about 30 years, but scientists are still studying this.
Research into how the Komodo dragon kills its prey
Researchers at the University of Melbourne in Australia have discovered that the secret of predatory success lies in its amazing poison.
Until now, it was believed that the bite of the Komodo monster is contagious due to some of the bacteria contained in its mouth. Due to the lightning-fast microbial attack spreading throughout the victim's body, the bitten animal soon died and the monitor lizard could only wait and find the victim by its smell. After waiting for the death of the animal or the moment when it was greatly weakened and could not defend itself, the monitor lizard proceeded to the meal.
But Brian Fry and his team refuted this hypothesis, discovering poisonous glands in the skull of an animal causing severe paralysis in those who have received a reptile bite... After studying the poison, scientists found that it dilates blood vessels and prevents blood from clotting, causing the victim to "shock". The bite of the Komodo monster is much weaker than that of a crocodile, but their prey soon dies due to blood loss caused by a deadly powerful poison that prevents blood from clotting.
Fry also studied the fossils of an extinct giant monitor lizard known as Megalania (Varanus prisca) to find out if this species had venom glands. Their results, published in March 2009 in the American journal "PNAS" (Eng. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, rus. Proceedings National Academy Sciences), showed that this lizard, reaching a length of seven meters, was one of the largest poisonous animals that existed on Earth.
Photo portrait of a Komodo dragon
Mouth of the Komodo dragon
Monitor lizard next to its victim
The last known cases attacks by Komodo monitor lizards on people
In 2007, an eight-year-old boy was killed by a Komodo dragon, the first fatal attack on record in 30 years. The attack took place in March during the dry season, so the rangers suggest that the lizard may have been especially hungry given that the ponds have dried up and the prey that gathers there has stopped coming to them. The Komodo dragon pounced on the boy as he went into the bushes to relieve himself, local media reported.
The boy's uncle came running and started throwing stones at the lizard until she let go of his nephew. One way or another, the boy died from intense bleeding from his torso, his uncle described that the boy had two bites.
In 2008, three Britons, Kathleen Mitchinson, Charlotte Ellen and James Manning were forced to throw stones to ward off Komodo monitor lizards when they ran aground on the uninhabited island of Rincha in eastern Indonesia. They managed to create fear in animals. But Anwar was not so lucky.
In 2008, a group of scuba divers on a boat, due to the strong Flores current, was strongly removed from their original dive point. After spending 10 hours of spinning at high tide, around midnight, the group made it to the beach, as it seemed, it was an uninhabited island, about 25 miles from where they started. ordeal... However, their troubles did not end there. They ended up on the island of Rincha, where an estimated 1,300 Komodo monitor lizards live.
The attacks began almost immediately. The merciless lizard repeatedly attacked the Swede and bit the diver's belt. She chewed on her belt while other divers threw stones at her head. For two days and nights, the injured divers fought against monitor lizards and the tropical heat, scraping the remaining shellfish off the rocks and eating them raw. Finally, an Indonesian rescue crew spotted a spotted orange divers' emergency buoy placed on the rocks. Although the group of divers was shocked and recuperated at a local hospital on Flores Island, they still celebrated their survival in a city bar.
In March 2009, Police Sergeant Kosmas Jalang reported that 31-year-old apple picker Muhammad Anwar had received "terrible wounds" on Komodo Island. “He was working in a tree when he slipped and fell,” Sergeant Jalang said. He was immobilized, lying on the ground for a short time, and then two monitor lizards attacked him. "They are opportunistic predators and he never got a chance."
Miss Theresia Tava, who worked nearby and took off the shock after seeing the attack, said: “He was bleeding all over his body. When he fell, barely a minute had passed before the monitor lizards were on him. They just bite and bite and bite, it was terrible. They bit his arms, torso, legs and neck. "
A speedboat took Anwar to nearby Flores Island, but doctors at a clinic on Flores Island failed to save Anwar's life.
Attacks on humans by Komodo monitor lizards, which are fewer than 4,000 in the wild, are extremely rare, but rangers say the number of such incidents seems to have increased in recent years.
In 2017, in Thailand, giant monitor lizards practically ate the body of a tourist. In late April, an investigation was launched into the death of 30-year-old Belgian tourist Eliza Dallemange, whose remains were found on Tau Island on 28 April. The police told the relatives of the deceased that she had committed suicide, but Eliza's family did not believe it.
The girl's body was so badly torn apart by giant lizards (not Komodo lizards, giant lizards are in third place in size after Komodo and striped lizards) that it could only be identified by a dental examination. The girl's parents reported that in last months she often traveled the world, practiced meditation and studied yoga. V last time(April 17), when the Belgian via Skype contacted her relatives a few days before her death, the girl was in high spirits, she said that she was very happy to exist in unity with nature on the "paradise island".
Her mother said, “Too many things show us that someone is involved. The police told us that Elise hanged herself in the jungle. I cannot agree that my daughter killed herself. " Perhaps Eliza's parents' suspicions may make sense, since no note of suicide was found near the girl's body. Reporters Believe Thai Police Won't Disclose true reason death of a foreigner, so as not to scare away tourists. From 2014 to 2017, seven people died on Tau Island. All of them became victims of lizards, which can reach three meters in length. Their bite is toxic and often fatal.
Below is a case when a monitor lizard attacked a girl. It was not a Komodo monitor lizard, this underlines the fact that even a not so frightening monitor lizard is capable of inflicting wounds on a person.
Goanna grabbed the leg of an 8 year old girl
On January 24, 2019, a young girl was forced to rush to the hospital after being bitten by a huge goanna on a beach in Queensland. An eight-year-old girl was left with a "frightening" wound on her leg after it took two people to free her from a lizard jaw at a camping site on South Stradbrook Island.
Photo. Snakecatcher Tony Harrison with Goanna, who attacked an 8-year-old girl
“It was a very disturbing incident,” Queensland Chief Emergency Officer Janey Shirman told reporters. “While walking around the campground, she was attacked by a goanna, who made a rather nasty cut. It was quite difficult to get the goanna off the baby and it took a couple of people to get it off the leg. "
When the girl was taken to Gold Coast University Hospital for treatment of a deep wound to her leg, Shearman described the attack as "savage."
Experts say goann bites can be dangerous because carnivores feed on carrion and toxic bacteria in the mouth can cause pain, swelling, and prolonged bleeding caused by the bites.
Below you can see documentary about the investigation of the attacks of Komodo monitor lizards on people under the title: "In the mouth of the dragon." The film investigates the case when a Komodo dragon attacked a boy named Mansour on Komodo Island. Only thanks to the quick reaction of his uncle Jafar, the Komodo dragon threw its prey and disappeared from sight, but the worst was only ahead. The boy died of blood loss just 30 minutes later. The film also mentions an incident that happened in 1974 with the famous German hunter, Baron Rudolf von Reading, who was eaten by a Komodo dragon during a walk. And also there is a story of the head of the pier, Yvon Pariman, who was attacked by a monitor lizard, when he lay down to rest on a bed with socks in his house (the Komodo dragon grabbed him by the leg with socks). Yvon was lucky, despite his wounds and fever, he survived.
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