Komodo Dragon

Komodo dragon animal, commonly known as Komodo monitor with a biological name as Varanus Komodoensis. They are the large and extant lizards of the family of Varaniddae and are members of the monitor lizard. They are the species that belonged to a single native geographical location from the time they came into existence till now and have not been able to widespread its species to different locations worldwide. They are the native habitats of the Komodo Island and a few of the other lesser surrounding islands like Rinca, Flores, Sunda and Gilli Motang situated in Indonesia. Komodo dragon size is the largest among all other species of lizard and people around the world have their interest because of the predatory habit and the komodo dragon size made them the centre for ecotourism and hence became a strong reason for their protection as they are one of the endangered species on verge of extinction. They grow to a maximum length of 3 meters that is 10ft and the approximate weight is around 70 kgs or 150lbs. Because of the komodo dragon size and its stout body structure and heavyweight, they are considered as the apex predators and dominates the ecosystem in which they exist. They are generally the alpha predator as they hunt and trap the prays that includes mammals, invertebrates and birds but they very rarely attack humans. As the study shows that there are two glands that release toxic proteins that actually consists of blood thinner chemical and thus their bite is a venomous bite. Their hunting pattern is quite different from that of the other lizards of the family. Their diet primarily includes dead flesh of the animals and other mammals as well as Sunda sambar which are native deers of Indonesia. 

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Komodo Dragon Description

Structural Description

They are one of the heaviest dragon known in the lizard family whose average weight is 70kgs and the specimen that is in captivity weighs a little more than this. According to the study of their structural anatomy, the males carry an average weight ranging from 79 to 91 kgs whereas the females average weight ranging from  63 to 78 kgs. The biggest Komodo dragon of the monitor lizard family was found to be 10.3 ft in length and weighed 166 kgs (this weight includes the undigested food in his stomach). They usually have a long body and the tail of this specimen is as long as its body and possess a sharp row of teeth that are around 60 and are replaceable in nature. All of the 60 teeth measure up to 2.5 cm or 1 inch in length with their saliva excreted from the salivary glands are blood tinted as their teeth are almost completely covered with gum tissues that get slightly cut or torn at the time of their feeding. Komodo dragons have a forked tongue that has been split into two parts at the tip like other monitor lizards. Their skin is reinforced with scales that act as armour. The scales on their body are composed of osteoderms that are the tiny boney deposits forming scales that act as a natural chain-mail for the specimen. The areas on the head of an adult Komodo dragon that lacks the bony deposits forming scales are around the eyes, nostrils, mouth margin and around the third eye known as the parietal eye that is present on the top of the head of many fishes and reptiles that is the part of the hypothalamus and is photoreceptive in nature. Usually, reptiles have a maximum of two different patterns and shapes of osteoderms, the komodo dragon has four varieties of pattern and shapes of the same as vermiform, dendritic, platy and rosette. For the baby Komodo dragon usually the shape and pattern of osteoderms are restricted to four but as they ages, the osteoderms varies in their shapes and extensively ossifying as the lizards grow in size. The osteoderms are totally absent in the babies that are just hatched from the eggs, also called hatchlings and the komodo dragon babies till they are juveniles indicating that the combat for food and mating and protection from prays starts with ageing or as they attain adulthood.

Senses of Komodo Dragons

As with the other specimen of the species, the komodo dragon possesses a single ear bone which is known as straps. These are used for transferring the vibrations that first occur in the tympanic membrane to the cochlea at the end. Thus they are capable of only processing sounds that range from 400 to 2000 hertz and thus are nonresponsive towards whispers or loud noises like banging or shouting. The Komodo dragon has a vision up to 300 meters but because of the presence of cone cells in their eyes that acts as photoreceptors and react differently to a different wavelength of light thus it has bad night vision and cannot visually differentiate and separately perceive the stationary objects. Thus it mostly relies on its tongue for smell stimuli, taste and with the use of the vomeronasal organ also known as Jacobson’s organ. They specifically detect the detect various smells and distinguish between them with their strong olfactory organ and do not use their nostrils for the same. As they have a habit of swinging the head from side to side and with the help of the favourable wind direction it can smell and sense the native deers from a distance of 4 to 9.5kms. They do not possess many taste buds but have a few located at the back of their throat where the tongue ends. The bonny deposits forming the scales that is reinforced with the skin of the Komodo dragon has sensory plaques that facilitate the sense of touch as they are directly connected to their nervous system. To promote a more definitive sense of touch their chin, ears, lips and the sole of the foot possess two or three sensory plaques. The close-up image of the skin of the Komodo dragon is given below.

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Komodo Dragon Behaviour and Ecology

The komodo prefers both hot and dry places and choose to live in dry, open grasslands, savannas and tropical forests that are at low elevation. As they are ectotherm in nature thus they are a day animal as they carry out most of their activities during the daytime but sometimes show nocturnal activities. They are primarily solitary animal and only come together to breed and eat. They usually have the capability of running fast with brief sprints and their speed is up to 20km/h and their diving length is measured to be up to 4.5 meters or 15 feet. The baby Komodo dragon can easily climb up the trees proficiently with the help of its strong claws but as the komodo dragon ages, its claws become bigger in size and sharp that is used primarily as a weapon to grip and kill the prey and thus the huge size makes it impractical for them to climb trees. It is also capable of standing on its hindlimbs with the support of its tail to catch or reach out to prey. Moreover, it uses its strongest forelimbs and sharp claws to dig up a hole in sand of about 1 to 3 m deep to sleep in the burrow. Because of the deep burrow and its large size, it conserves the body heat throughout its sleeping span and therefore their basking period is minimized in the morning. They usually are on a hunting spree during the afternoon and acquires a strategic position to hunt down a deer. But during the hottest time of the day they look for shades that are preferably on ridges with cool sea breeze and dry without any vegetation. 

Diet

They are strictly carnivorous in nature and strives on wild pigs and mostly carrion and due to their strong-smelling sensory organ, they can easily locate the carcass from a long distance easily. They seem to be smelling the rotting flesh of any carcass from a distance as far as 9.5 km. they often use their forelegs and claws to ambush the prey and killing them by targeting the throat or the underpart. They are also seen hunting down wild pigs and native deers with their tail. They usually swallow rather than chewing the chunk of flesh while holding the prey with their forelegs. As they have an extendable stomach, flexible skull and loosely articulated jaws they often swallow the prays as a whole without tearing them apart provided the size of the prey is smaller than the size of the komodo dragon-like small goats. The specimen produces a large amount of red saliva that helps lubricate the prey while swallowing but it still takes as long as 15 to 20 minutes. As the metabolism of the komodo dragon is very slow thus after consuming 80% of its body weight it sits under the sun so as to exceed the metabolism process so that there is no chance of them getting infected due to the rotting of the undigested flesh in the stomach that causes severe poisoning to the predators. As because of their slow metabolism the komodos can sustain the entire year by just consuming 12 full meals a year. The range of the diet of Komodo dragons varies largely from reptiles, invertebrates, birds, insects, birds’ eggs, goat, wild pig, carrions, mammals, monkeys, wild boars, horses as well as wild buffalos. Usually, the juveniles and the baby komodo dragon preys on small birds, insects, birds eggs, geckos and small mammals. The adults of the family usually engage in hunting. There is a hierarchy in which the adult most larger animal will eat first before the yonder and smaller ones. As the adult male asserts his domination the others are submissive by rumbling hisses. The males of the same size sometimes wrestle for dominance over the prey. The komodos very rarely attack humans but they feed on human corpses by digging them out of shallow graves.

Venom

They are a highly toxic creature that possesses venoms that are secreted from the two glands that are situated at the two sides of the throat that contain highly poisonous proteins that they use for several other processes but are the main cause of venomous bites. As the specimen traps the prey and bite it with its sharp row of teeth and pull it back with a jerk of its strong neck muscle it creates a huge gaping wound where the venom secreted by the gland is transmitted into the body of the pray. These poisonous proteins have a blood-thinning effect that results in swelling and prevents blood clotting that causes a lot of heavy blood loss and the pray experience an induced shock that cause the death. 

Reproduction

The mating of the male and female occurs between May and August and the laying of eggs happen from the start of September. Usually before mating the male komodos fight with each other for winning over the females and their territories. They usually fight to stand on their hind legs and the fight ends with the pinning down of the loser on the ground. After the fight ends the winning male usually flick their long tongue towards the female in order to gain her receptivity. During the first session of the courtship, the female komodo resists the males to come closer by their claws and teeth. Thus the male fully restrains the female before the beginning of the courtship to avoid getting hurt. The courtship usually lasts long with the male licking the back of the female or rubbing the chin over her head. Once the mating is done the females before laying their eggs dug a big borrow in order to keep the eggs safe from the predator male of the same species. The burrows contain about 20 eggs. The females usually hatch 60% of their eggs in the nest, 20% on the ground and the rest 20% on the hilly top. The incubation time of the eggs is 6 to 8 months. When the hatchers are produced are 105.1 grams of weight and 46.5 cm long and they usually habitat on the tress as they are born weaponless and vulnerable as prays for the bigger lizards and cannibalistic adults. Still, it has been studied that 10% of juveniles are consumed by their cannibalistic adults. The Komodo dragons take 8 to 9 years to reach adulthood and may live long for 30 years or more when in captivity.  

Threats to Survival and Conservation

While asexual reproduction thus helps the species to replenish their population but it comes with a great advantage as the hatchers produced from the eggs are only males and the presence of the female was concluded to be the result of inbreeding. Thus with the decline of the population of female the asexual reproduction per year also decreases in numbers. The reptiles that belong to the same species are very reluctant to stay far away from home and do not survive in other environmental conditions as they are habituated to dry and hot places like savannas and Greenlands with no vegetation. Also, they have been concentrated in few selective locations since their evaluation and have been native to the places. They could not spread themselves to other parts of the world. But with the increase in human habitation, the komodo dragon habitat is under major threats. Even the humans have burnt the habitat of these dragons in order to put the land for commercial uses. Even the tourists often offer the handout foods and other things to draw their attention towards them and thus disturb their mating. Therefore with the increase in the survival concerns for the dragons, the government of Indonesia has temporarily closed down the tourists visit the places that are the dragons’ top habitats but had to resume soon as with dropping of the tourist visit the economy slowed and the incentives that come from the tourism to help locals preserve the species was also at risk. In the 1980s finally, the government of Indonesia has built up a Komodo national park that comprises 800 square feet of area to breed different species of Komodo dragons as well as native deers to balance the food chain with increasing the marine areas. Now in the Komodo national park, the UNESCO world heritage site has established a patrolling system in order to protect these rare species from poaching while building up local communities to promote awareness regarding the protection and the importance of this species.   

Conclusion

Komodo dragons are one of the rarest species of lizards that belong to the family of Varaniddae and are members of the monitor lizard. They are carnivorous in nature but seldomly attacks the humans though it feeds on the human corpses. The usual live up to 30 years and weighs about 300 pounds with an average height of 10 feet. The mating period of the komodo dragons is during may to august while they lay their eggs in monh of september. The maximum eggs layed by the females at one time is 20. The studies suggest that 60% of the females burrow deep holes and nest there to lay eggs, while 20% lay their eggs on ground and the rest 20% on uplands and hills. The incubation period is 6 to 8 months and the time to mature completely is 8 to 9 years. The komodo dragons usually feed on mammals, native deer, wild pigs, goats, buffallos, invertebrates, birds and eggs. Their bite is venomous as they have glands secreting toxic proteins that have blood-thinning properties that lead to the body shock of the prays to death. They do not have a clear night vision but they have a very strong smelling sense as their smell sensors are very sharp. They also feed on carcass and can locate them by smelling from a distance of 9 km. They even feed on the juvenile Komodo dragons.