The island of Komodo is about miles long it is the National Park, and the first dragons were discovered by the Dutch Colonials in about by they had put some protections on but in the National Park opened, and it’s been run as a Preservation land for these animals they are actually fed here the island is stocked with some of the say favorite goodies of the Komodo dragon there they’re real carnivores they will eat deer from the island of Timor they stock it with water buffalo those are for the big holidays, and they also will take anything they can see they call it any moving protein that these animals can find Komodo is a beautiful island as you as you pull in as you pull into the harbour you look up it looks like a landscape from a prehistoric movie, and you see the palm trees lining the mountaintops there are some beautiful coves, and beaches here, and there’s a very long pier, and it’s at the end of that pier where you will be greeted by your guide, and you must have a guide no one is allowed on the island or into the park without having a reservation. Because you must travel with the guide the guides are there to protect you they’ll take you through the savanna to help you locate the animals, and they will also have their famous metre long stick with a forked end, and that is pretty much all they need to keep you safe, and to keep the animals a little bit at bay Komodo dragons they’re just on a few of the volcanic islands here, and they are believed to have been descended from a larger lizard that lived on Indonesia’s main island Java some theories say that it came actually from Australia but all of this happened about, years ago now they like their little tropical forests but they will meander all over the island you can find them down on the beaches they’ll go up into some of the mountain ridges.
Komodo Island Indonesia Tourism Photo Gallery
Because they’d like to escape the heat sometimes at night they’ll find little burrows that are barely big enough to contain them, and they’ll just Nestle in till the Sun comes up or until they get hungry now they say that there are about animals left in the wild here there are about another on the nearby island of Rinka, and a couple of other little Indonesian islands are home to a hundred here or there local people called them or us it means land crocodile people live in the park among them, it’s a very different way of life all of their houses are built high on stilts, and their graves are surrounded by cement to keep the dragons from snatching bodies at night they say they rarely stroll out beyond the glow of their lanterns the children are thought are taught very early on just to pick up rocks hurl rocks at them, and they say the best thing to do if an animal is approaching you is to make a lot of noise, and wave your arms. Because they like to hunt in sneak attacks they’re not. So confrontative.
So if you make make a lot of commotion they’re more likely to stop in their tracks the Komodo is the world’s largest living lizard now the largest one ever weighed in came up to about pounds they say that that figure may have been supplemented with the weight of its last undigested meal the animal has the capacity of ingesting percent of its own bodyweight but they think that the average weight of these animals tops off at around pounds or kilos most of the male’s grow between, and feet long but some have measured up to feet, and they usually weigh in at about pounds the Komodos can really move they say that they run at speeds up to to miles per hour or at to km/h, and it’s amazing hunting strategy is based on stealth speed, and it’s overwhelming power they say that at top speed their legs begin to wind around each other like egg beaters our Komodos here are definitely carnivores, and they will scavenge from carcasses, and they will stalk animals, and they’re not really that fussy they’ll go after anything from rodents to large water buffalo they really enjoy the Timor rusa deer, it’s a red deer taken over from a nearby island, and that is its main prey however they also bring over some water buffalo some wild boar the crab-eating macaque is here an Asian Palm Civet but the Komodos they like to hunt along game trails they like to just sort of park themselves in a shady spot, and wait for their prey to wander by the young Komodo feed on gecko lizards, and insects until they get big enough, and their jaws get strong enough to partake in the bigger feasts but all of the animals like to use the element of surprise they say they may sit in one spot for hours just waiting to spring on any unsuspecting deer or boar or goat or as. I say any moving protein to come along they’ve got pretty good vision they can see about nine hundred, and eighty five feet away or three hundred meters, and they say that they’re better at picking up moving objects than stationary objects, and their hearing is not as strong as humans they don’t have the range that humans have they can’t hear low-pitched sounds or high-pitched screams. So if you do become hysterical don’t worry it won’t upset them but their primary sense is smell they can detect odor much in the way a snake does they use a very long yellow forked tongue, and they sample the air after which both of the tips of the tongue are tucked into the roof of their mouth they make contact there with what are called their Jacobson’s organs, and their little chemical analyzers that can read the tip of the tongue they can read the airborne molecules, and they let the animal know which direction the smell is coming from.
So it essentially helps them steer right or left depending on which side of the tongue the scent was picked up on. So they walk along they swing their heads from side to side, and that helps them also to pick up the scent, and the direction of any carrion which they can smell probably from a four kilometer radius especially when the wind is right you now the Komodo will begin to feed sometimes if, it’s a larger animal they will wait for the animal to go down, and then the whole group of Komodos from the area having been alerted by the smell will come in, and partake of the of the meal for years the conventional wisdom that it was bacteria in the dragon’s mouth that would infect the bitten animal, and they say if the animal managed to escape it would just die in a few days anyway of infection but they did make a discovery that the Dragon has venom glands they’re loaded with toxins that will lower blood pressure they cause massive bleeding, and prevent clotting, and they induce shock. So the Komodo bite is not ironically fatal to another Komodo only to a third party they’re very efficient killing machines unlike other large mammal carnivores like lions who tend to leave behind to percent of their kill unconsumed Komodos eat the bones the hooves the hides, and the intestines only after swinging them around wildly to rid them of their contents now young Komodos who are often cannibalized by their elders have learned very ironically to roll themselves in fecal matter.
So that they assume a scent that the big dragons may want to avoid now the female will lay eggs in September they may lay up to, and they are doing this avoiding the brutally hot months they leave the eggs in a depression or in a little nest perhaps adopted from even a bird, and the eggs will incubate for about nine months some of the females will actually spend much of that time lying on top of the nest others don’t have such great maternal instincts but when they hatch each one weighs less than three, and a half pounds for grams they may only be about inches in, and they survive on insects small rodents unfortunately many of them are lost to predators including the Komodos, and if they are able to survive for five years they’ll weigh about pounds, and then slow growth will continue from there on but most of the little ones they end up after hatching running up into the trees they stay up there spend much of their time up there where, it’s much safer for them their lifespan is about years now anti-poaching laws have been enacted here since it became a national park in some of the villagers nearby have made attempts to poison the Dragons. Because they are a nuisance to them, and they’ve poisoned carrion, and left it out as bait to rid themselves of some of the pests ear ones who come too close to the village the villagers on the island, and in the National Park seem to tolerate these frightening neighbors it may have something to do with their creation myth which explains their relationship they say they’ve always lived peacefully with the animals in this very close proximity one of their legends says a man was once married to a dragon princess, and they had twins a human boy named Garang, and a lizard girl named Ora who were separated at birth when Garin grew up as the story goes he met a fierce-looking beast in the forest, and just as he was about to spirit his mother stepped in, and said no that is your sister. So this has possibly has something to do with their tolerance for these animals some of the villagers have tried to feed them but the park authorities have discouraged that.
Because they don’t want the animals to lose their will to hunt regulations, and restrictions have directly impacted these villagers they have very few options to make a living here most of them are fishermen, and they sell to nearby islands but they can make a living by carving, and what they do is carve little dragon figures which are often for sale they even sell t-shirts here one of the goals of the management strategy here is to provide an alternative livelihood for these people most people here are of a group called the bujji’s they originated in East, and South subha WA in Sulawesi or in the island of West Flores, and most go to village schools here in the national park school goes up to grade four a few of them less than percent will go beyond in their education, and they’ll go over to a nearby island for high school but they don’t really feel more education is necessary. Because most of them are planning to go on to become fishermen like their fathers Tours should have no fears these days the park rangers carry six foot or two metre long sticks they say there was a day when they would actually pose for funny pictures with the animals poke their tails run out in front of them as if they were being chased they don’t do that anymore they take it very very seriously, and their job is to keep us all safe you it’s probably a little Clutterbuck thing about war.
