50 Fun Facts About Komodo Dragon

What is the Komodo dragon's scientific name?

Varanus salvadorii is the crocodile monitor of New Guinea, V. varius the lace monitor and V. priscus the extinct giant megalania.

Komodo dragons are native to islands in which country?

They are found only on Komodo, Rinca, Flores, Gili Dasami and Gili Motang, in the Lesser Sunda chain.

The Komodo dragon belongs to which lizard family?

Monitors are the family that also includes Australia's perentie and lace monitor and Africa's Nile monitor.

Males can grow to roughly what maximum length?

The largest verified captive specimen was a shade over that, at 3.1 metres and 166 kilograms including its last meal.

What is the main prey of adult Komodo dragons in the wild?

Deer, pigs and buffalo were all introduced to the islands by people; in the Pleistocene the dragons are thought to have hunted dwarf elephants instead.

Why do young Komodo dragons spend their early years up in trees?

Juveniles make up about a tenth of adult dragons' diet, so staying aloft until they are big enough to fight back is a good plan.

Juvenile Komodo dragons repel hungry adults by rolling in what?

They also rest inside the intestines of eviscerated kills, since even a cannibal dragon apparently draws the line somewhere.

How many years does a Komodo dragon take to reach maturity?

That slow start is balanced by a long life: they are thought to reach around 30, and one record-holder made it to 62.

Western scientists first recorded the Komodo dragon in which year?

It began as rumours reaching a Dutch lieutenant; a 1912 paper by Peter Ouwens made the animal famous.

In 2021 the IUCN Red List moved the Komodo dragon to which category?

The 2021 assessment uplisted it from Vulnerable. Climate change is the big worry: rising seas and aridification threaten the low-lying valleys the lizards depend on.

Komodo National Park was founded in which year?

It became a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1991 and was later voted one of the New 7 Wonders of Nature.

In the local Komodo language the dragons are called 'sebae', meaning what?

The Komodo people traditionally believe they and the dragons share the same spiritual mother.

The 1910 reports that reached the Dutch colonial administration described the animal as what?

Lieutenant van Steyn van Hensbroek investigated and sent a photograph and a skin to the Zoological Museum of Bogor.

Peter Ouwens, who published the first paper on the species in 1912, ran a museum in which Javan city?

He received a photo and a skin from the lieutenant plus two more specimens from a collector before writing it up.

The first two live Komodo dragons in Europe went on show at which zoo in 1927?

They were star exhibits in the brand-new Reptile House, where Joan Procter studied their behaviour.

A 1926 expedition to Komodo Island that returned with preserved and live specimens inspired which 1933 film?

Burden also coined the name 'Komodo dragon'; three of his stuffed specimens are still displayed at the American Museum of Natural History.

Who is credited with coining the common name 'Komodo dragon'?

Before that the animal went by 'Komodo monitor' in scientific writing, and locals called it ora or buaya darat.

Which family spent 11 months on Komodo Island in 1969 tagging more than 50 dragons for a landmark study?

Walter Auffenberg's book The Behavioral Ecology of the Komodo Monitor became the guide to keeping and breeding them in zoos.

Locals on Komodo Island call the dragon 'biawak raksasa', which translates as what?

'Ora' is the other traditional name, and Burden's 'Komodo dragon' only arrived in the 1920s.

Mitochondrial DNA shows the Komodo dragon's closest living relative is which lizard?

A 2021 study also found their ancestors hybridised with the ancestor of the sand monitors in the late Miocene.

Fossils show the Komodo dragon once lived on which continent, alongside the giant lizard megalania?

Queensland fossils span from about 3.8 million years ago to at least 330,000 years ago.

Roughly how many serrated teeth does a Komodo dragon have?

They are shed and replaced constantly, and each is almost buried in gum tissue that tears during feeding, which is why the saliva runs bloody.

What colour is a Komodo dragon's forked tongue?

Like a snake, it flicks the tongue to carry scent to the Jacobson's organ; the head-swinging walk helps it sample the air.

A Komodo dragon's skin is reinforced by tiny bones called what?

They act like natural chain-mail, which is one reason the hide makes poor leather; hatchlings lack them entirely.

A 2024 study found Komodo dragon tooth serrations are coated with what?

The orange, iron-rich coating keeps the cutting edges sharp, an adaptation seen more weakly in a few other monitor species.

How often are a Komodo dragon's teeth replaced?

Up to five replacement teeth queue behind each tooth position, a rate rivalled only by the crocodile monitor.

With a favourable wind, from roughly how far away can a Komodo dragon detect carrion?

It smells with its tongue rather than its nostrils, swinging its head side to side as it walks to sample the air.

Komodo dragons can sprint briefly at up to what speed?

They can also dive to 4.5 metres, and juveniles climb trees easily with their strong claws.

Up to what proportion of its own body mass can a Komodo dragon eat in a single meal?

Afterwards it basks to speed digestion, since a meal that sits too long can rot and poison the dragon.

Thanks to a slow metabolism, a large Komodo dragon can survive on as few as how many meals a year?

After digesting, it regurgitates a foul-smelling gastric pellet of horns, hair and teeth and rubs its face in the dirt to clean off the mucus.

Why did Komodo villagers move graves to clay ground and pile rocks on them?

Adult dragons occasionally attack living people too, though most bites are defensive.

During the Pleistocene, Komodo dragons are thought to have preyed mainly on dwarf species of what?

Deer, pigs and buffalo only reached the islands with humans, roughly 10,000 to 7,000 years ago.

Research in 2013 concluded that the bacteria in Komodo dragon mouths are what?

The lizards actually keep clean mouths, spending 10 to 15 minutes lip-licking and rubbing their heads in leaves after a meal.

In 2009, MRI scans of a preserved Komodo dragon skull revealed two venom glands where in the head?

One gland extracted from a dying zoo dragon secreted proteins that stop clotting, lower blood pressure and cause shock.

The venom gland studied in 2009 came from a terminally ill dragon at a zoo in which city?

The University of Melbourne team behind the study had first suggested in 2005 that monitors might be mildly venomous.

What is the name of the antibacterial peptide synthesised from a molecule found in Komodo dragon blood?

It was tested against multidrug-resistant bacteria and even some fungi, and also sped up wound healing.

In what months does Komodo dragon mating take place?

Males wrestle upright on their hind legs for females; some vomit or defecate before a bout begins.

In one study, 60% of female Komodo dragons laid their eggs in the nests of which bird?

The scrubfowl is a megapode, a mound-builder whose warm compost heaps make ready-made incubators.

How many eggs does an average Komodo dragon clutch contain?

They incubate for seven to eight months and hatch in April, when insects for the hatchlings are most abundant.

Flora, a Komodo dragon that laid unfertilised eggs in 2006 without meeting a male, lived at which English zoo?

She laid 11 eggs, seven hatched, and every hatchling was male, exactly as the ZW chromosome system predicts.

Offspring produced by parthenogenesis in Komodo dragons are always which sex?

Eggs receiving a W chromosome become WW and fail; only ZZ eggs develop, so a lone female can found a colony by breeding with her sons.

Which zoo became the first in the Americas to document Komodo dragon parthenogenesis, in 2008?

Two eggs hatched on 31 January and 1 February 2008; both were males.

Komodo National Park data for 1974 to 2012 recorded how many attacks on humans?

Most victims were villagers living around the park; juveniles flee if a person gets within about 100 metres.

Which Indonesian zoo held 134 dragons in 2022, the largest collection outside the wild?

Early zoo dragons fared badly: a Bronx Zoo pair in 1926 lasted only a couple of months.

In 2001 a Komodo dragon at Los Angeles Zoo bit the foot of Phil Bronstein, then married to which actress?

The keeper had told him to remove his white shoes and socks, fearing they resembled the white rats fed to the dragon; the dragon bit anyway.

Komodo National Park was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in which year?

It has also been voted one of the New 7 Wonders of Nature and sits in the Coral Triangle, so its waters are as protected as its dragons.

Besides Komodo and Rinca, which is the third large island inside Komodo National Park?

The park adds 26 smaller islands to those three; the dragon population on Padar itself died out, last seen in 1975.

How old was the oldest recorded living Komodo dragon?

Most estimates put the normal lifespan at up to 30 years, so that individual roughly doubled it.

Komodo dragons are thought to hear only within roughly which frequency range?

They were once believed deaf until a London Zoo keeper trained one to come out to feed at the sound of her voice.

Which New York zoo displayed a pair of Komodo dragons in September 1926, both dead within two months?

London Zoo's 1927 pair fared better, and the US National Zoo tried again in 1934 with a dragon that lived two years.