The Komodo Dragon
The Komodo Dragon
2. Even though Komodo dragons don't fly or breathe fire, they do look like little dragons. These reptiles - the largest lizards in the world - live in the Komodo Island area of Indonesia. The adult dragons can grow to be more than 10 feet long and can weigh a much as 250 pounds. They are strong enough to kill a water buffalo, which can weigh more than 1,000 pounds!
3. The komodo dragon is considered a monitor.
4. At 10 feet the Komodo Dragon is the largest lizard that ever lived besides dinosaurs.
5. They are at the top of the food chain on the little islands they live on. Unlike snakes Komodo Dragons tastes the air with there tongues.
6. The Komodo Dragon is carnivorous and cannibalistic. It has a large appetite they will kill prey as big as pigs and deer. They are also known to bring down an adult water buffalo. Anything they can over power including small animals and injured humans. They grow to be about 10 feet and weigh between 220-300 pounds.Their spit contains saliva that may kill you. They can grow to be as big as a car.They can live to be 20-40 years old.
7. Babies spend most of their life in trees where it is safe.
9. They have about 60 teeth which get replaced frequently and are positioned to cut out chunks out of its prey.
10. The komodo dragon can see up to 300 metres away
11. Before a mating season a komodo dragon would perform rituals, so when mating season starts the female komodo is more receptive to the male
12. Some of the male komodo’s rituals would include tongue-touching, snout nudging, chin rubbing, neck biting, and scratching.
13. The first part of life of a new born komodo dragon is spent fending for themselves.
14. A komodo dragon can eat anything from a small rodent to a water buffalo.
15. A komodo dragon can eat about 43.5 kg in the space of a few minutes.
16. If a animal manages to get away from a komodo dragon, the animal would die in a few days because the komodo dragons bite is infectious.
17. Komodos have yellow colored tongues.
18. Their body color is brown/green.
19. They have scaly but not slimy scales.Their tongues are sharp like a sword. Komodos are poisonous also.
20. They have sharp claws and powerful legs.
21./ Komodo dragons love to eat meat.
22. A komodo dragons favorite snack is smaller dragons.
23. They also eat deer, pigs and water buffalo. It sounds gross but its true.
24. A Komodo Dragon’s beastly diet includes deer, wild boar, goats and other large mammals! Komodo Dragons will wait for hours on end for a meal to pass by and when one does pass by they will ambush them by charging at them with their deadly jaws wide open.
25. Komodo Dragons sometimes eat their young.
26. The Komodo Dragon has a deadly weapon poisonous saliva! This monstrous saliva sends a Komodo Dragon’s prey to a slow and painful death. First of all the Komodo Dragon bites the leg of its prey, injecting poison. Then follows the unfortunate victim until it dies. Afterwards the Komodo Dragon feasts on the dead carcass.
27. After a meal a Komodo Dragon lies down in a sunny spot and regurgitates a pile of horns, fur and teeth.
28. A Komodo Dragon can smell its prey from up to four kilometres away! It doesn’t actually smell with its nose, it smells with its tongue and Jacobson’s organ. It works like this, the tongue picks up the smell and the Jacobson's organ analyses it.
29. The Komodo Dragon is somewhere near the top of its food chain.
30. Sometimes female Komodo Dragons reproduce without a mate (parthenogenesis).
31. According to Patrick Barry, this method of reproduction could actually lead to possible stem cell research.
32. Did you know the Komodo Dragon can kill a prey in a few days after using one of its adaptations. One of the creatures adaptations is very dangerous. This ability can tear through its prey. This ability is very sharp claws. Another adaptation is deadly saliva. This can kill its prey after using it. But it will take a few days. The last adaptation is its forked tongue. This allows it to follow scents and find its prey. Did you know the komodo dragon is not a dragon it’s a lizard?
33. In December of 2006, Flora, a female Komodo dragon at Chester Zoo in the United Kingdom laid a clutch of eggs, some of which hatched into healthy offspring. Normally, this wouldn’t be a noteworthy event, except Flora had not been kept with any male dragons, so how her eggs were able to develop is a challenging question.
34. Earlier in April of 2006, at London Zoo, another UK zoo, Sungai, who is also a Komodo dragon, had a clutch of four eggs hatch which were also all males. It had been two years since her last known contact with a male.
35. They can run up to 11 mph in short bursts.
36. They are strong swimmers-often seen miles from shore.
37. They are immune to their own toxic bacteria.
38. Komodo dragons are the only lizards that have killed and eaten humans.
39. They are capable of parthenogenesis-a method of reproduction where the female is capable of laying eggs without outside fertilization by a male. Any eggs that hatch as a result produce only male offspring.
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