Komodo Dragon

There are only about three to five thousand Komodo dragons alive in the wild, and they are limited to a few volcanic islands in Indonesia. The island of Komodo is now a nature reserve where the dragon is protected. The dragon is a large and deadly monitor lizard with close ancestors that date back more than 100 million years. It is the largest living lizard in the world (averaging ten feet long and two hundred pounds), but not the largest reptile (alligators and crocodiles can grow larger). The local villagers call the Komodo dragon ora, which means “land crocodile.” The dragons are normally a sandy brown with dark markings against very coarse and dry scales. They have a long neck and a tail that is longer than their body. They have strong, sharp claws that are used in combat with other dragons and during feeding frenzies.

It is highly advisable to keep them at a safe distance and to always look for them when touring their domain. More than a dozen human deaths have been attributed to dragon bites over the last century. A Swiss tourist sat down to relax while the rest of his tour group went onward and was attacked and eaten by a dragon. All that was left was a piece of his camera.

The discovery of the Komodo dragon is one of the zoological surprises of the twentieth century. Large lizards were assumed extinct until 1912, when a party of pearl fishermen went to Komodo Island and brought back stories of an enormous, prehistoric creature. An expedition followed from the Buitenzorg Zoological Museum on Java. A report about the dragons was published but received little attention in the years leading up to World War

In 1926, an expedition from the American Museum of Natural History traveled to Komodo to investigate the dragons. The expedition confirmed the stories and they returned with some specimens that they killed on their adventure.

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