Because of their fragmented range and populations, as well as habitat loss, hunting and the occasional poisoning by local people to protect children and livestock, Komodo dragons face a high risk of extinction. They were added to the U.S. endangered species list in 1976, and an international agreement prohibits commercial trade in the animals. Several U.S. zoos have successfully bred them. Faust, the star of Lizards and the Komodo King, was born at the San Diego Zoo.
Komodos’ hunting practices are not for the faint of heart. This is Nature at her reddest in tooth and claw. Ambush hunters, they lie in wait along game trails. Often a lizard will let its prey — a deer, goat, wild boar, or even a half-ton water buffalo — pass, then it lunges and attacks from the rear, sprinting up to 11 miles an hour in a brief chase.
If it succeeds in smashing the prey animal to the ground, the Komodo disembowels it and waits while it dies of shock or blood loss. Then the lizard rips into it in earnest with its large, serrated teeth, bolting as much as 5 pounds of meat a minute. Komodos consume everything — everything — except the contents of the digestive tract. A lizard will swing the guts from side to side to clear them out. A hungry Komodo dragon can put away a meal equivalent to 80 percent of its empty weight. That’s like a 150-pound person cramming down 120 pounds of hamburger in one sitting.
A large lizard will also scavenge carrion, detecting it from miles away with its sensitive forked tongue, which collects scent chemicals in the air. The carrion might be escaped prey that either bled to death or died from infection. A Komodo’s mouth is a veritable petri dish of death germs: More than 50 disease-causing bacteria have been identified from the teeth and saliva.
Scientists long puzzled over how such a super-sized reptile could evolve on small islands offering small-to-medium-sized prey. Then they uncovered the fossil remains of two long-extinct species of mastodonlike elephants on Flores, solving the mystery of the Komodo’s evolution. Even without elephants, the lizards continued to find enough food — like other big carnivorous reptiles, they can go several weeks between meals — because of their undiscriminating palate. They’ll eat juveniles of their own species, and they’ve been observed plundering fresh graves.
There doesn’t seem to be a lovable side to Komodo dragons, at least the wild ones. But they are intriguing — and intelligent. Researchers have observed hunting strategies that indicate both memory and advanced planning: Komodos follow the progress of pregnant goats and horses to be present at the birth. Zookeepers credit the lizards with keen intelligence on a par with a rat’s. Komodos can spot their caregivers in a crowd, even when the keeper isn’t in uniform. And if attracting the attention of nearly 8-foot lizard isn’t scary, what is?
