Strange Facts From Nature

Komodo Dragon

Monitor Lizard, or goanna, is the common name for a genus of lizards that includes the largest living lizard, the Komodo dragon. Monitors live in tropical and desert areas throughout Africa, in Asia from Arabia through southern China and Malaysia, and in the East Indies and Australia. There are about 30 species in the genus, ranging from 8 inches to 10 feet long. They are characterized by a long, forked, snakelike tongue, and are able to engulf and swallow large prey whole. They are sleek, fast runners with tapered heads, long necks, strong legs, and long, powerful tails. Monitors feed on insects, birds, reptiles and their eggs, small mammals, and carrion. Two species, the Komodo dragon and the Gray's monitor, are listed on the World Conservation Union Red List of Threatened Species.

Monitors are among the oldest living lizards. They are related to the mosasaur, a marine lizard that lived from 136 million to 65 million years ago and ranged up to 33 feet long. The largest monitor is the Komodo dragon. Among the thousands of small islands of Indonesia is one called Komodo. It is a mountainous stretch of volcanic rock covered with grass, palms, and small pockets of jungle. This little island, 22 miles (35 km) long, along with a few others nearby, is the sole habitat of the world's largest lizard. The people of Komodo call this animal "ora." Elsewhere it is known as the Komodo Island monitor or more popularly, the Komodo dragon. Oras and other monitor lizards are closely related to snakes.

Oras can reach 10 feet in length and weigh 300 pounds or more, particularly after a meal. They are the top predators in their habitat, feeding on wild boar, deer, water buffalo, dogs, goats, rats, snakes, birds, other oras, and, once in a great while, humans. They hunt by ambush, hiding in the scrub brush along trails and in the tall grass of the savannas. Despite their lumbering appearance, oras can move with alarming speed when they want to, lunging from their hiding places and sprinting toward their startled victims. They can't sustain a long chase, but often all they need to subdue their prey is one bite. Oras carry poisonous bacteria in their mouths so even if they don't immediately catch their prey, the attack is often fatal. Using their long forked tongues, they track the scent of their prey as the wounded animal slowly weakens from the infected bite, a process that can take several days. When the victim can no longer flee, the ora moves in for the kill. Oras are voracious eaters. They devour every bit of their prey; bones, fur and hooves, ripping off huge chunks with their razor-sharp serrated teeth and swallowing the pieces whole. Like all predators, oras serve an important ecological function: they preserve ecological stability by ensuring that prey species (deer, for example) don't overpopulate and degrade their island habitat. Although monitors are mainly terrestrial, some species also climb trees and are good swimmers. The large water monitor of East India can swim far from land.

Oras are reptiles. They don't need to eat as often as big mammalian predators, such as tigers. As a result, the small island of Komodo can support quite a few of these giant monitor lizards. Their total population on the island is estimated at about 4,000 to 5,000 animals and another 1,000 live on the neighboring island of Rinca. This same amount of territory could only support a few dozen tigers. Still, these numbers don't tell the whole story. The ora population includes only about 350 breeding females. And as human populations grow, the ora's limited habitat shrinks. On some islands, the coexistence between people and giant lizards is an increasingly uneasy one. Komodo Island is now a popular ecotourist attraction. The Indonesian government is attempting to regulate this traffic so that disruption of the oras is kept to a minimum. They can live up to 100 years.

Oras caught in the wild don't survive well in captivity. They don't reproduce readily, and often die from infections and parasitic diseases. But some hatchlings born in zoos (including one born in 1992 at the National Zoo in Washington, DC) have done well. Young oras live in trees, feeding on insects, until they're about a year old and three feet long. Then they move permanently to the ground. This strategy helps preserve the species; small oras on the ground are sometimes preyed on by adults. The ora's yellow tongue and repulsive mouth odor may have been the inspiration for legends of fire-breathing dragons. Legal protection of oras has reduced commercial hunting, but they are sometimes poisoned by villagers to protect children and domestic animals.

In 1926, W. Douglas Burden, a trustee of the American Museum of Natural History, organized an expedition to Komodo to capture oras and bring them back to the U.S. It was he who first called them "dragons." Burden came back with two living lizards and some preserved specimens for study at the Museum. The live ones survived for only a short time at the Bronx Zoo. In the Hall of Reptiles on the third floor of the Museum, you can see some of the preserved specimens Burden brought back.

Komodo Island National Park is a national park in south central Indonesia, occupying most of the island of Komodo, which lies in the Malay Archipelago, east of the island of Sumbawa and west of the island of Flores. First protected in 1938 and founded as a national park in 1980, Komodo Island National Park covers 520 sq km (200 sq mi). The island has just one village of about 450 people. The island's volcanic slopes are generally hot and barren, though briefly during the annual monsoon season they turn green. A few tall lontar palm trees grow on the hill slopes, and tamarind trees (tropical evergreens) are found around the village.

The island of Komodo is one of the few remaining areas inhabited by the Komodo dragon, which is protected in Indonesia. Komodo dragons are giant monitor lizards that roam wild over the island. Park officials regularly supply pig and goat carcasses to attract the lizards to viewing areas for tourists. Scientific classification: Monitors make up the genus Varanus and the family Varanidae. The Komodo dragon is classified as Varanus komodoensis, the water monitor as Varanus salvator, and the Gray's monitor as Varanus olivaceus.

http://animaldiversity.ummz.umich.edu/accounts/varanus/v._komodoensis$narrative.html

http://www.amnh.org/nationalcenter/Endangered/ora/ora.html