50 free Komodo Dragon trivia questions with answers — nature quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
The Komodo dragon is the biggest lizard on Earth, and it has the stories to match. This quiz covers where the dragons actually live, how big the largest verified specimens really were, how they hunt deer and buffalo, why the old "deadly bacteria" theory was overturned by the discovery of venom glands, and how a female at Chester Zoo produced a clutch of sons without ever meeting a male. It also digs into the human side: the 1910 rumours of a "land crocodile" that reached the Dutch colonial administration, the 1926 expedition that inspired King Kong, London Zoo's first dragons in 1927, the villagers who moved their graves to stop the lizards digging them up, and the newspaper editor bitten on the foot at Los Angeles Zoo. Easy questions ask which country and which lizard family; the hard ones want ear-bone counts, tooth-replacement rates and the number of eggs Flora laid. Every answer was checked against Wikipedia's articles on the Komodo dragon and Komodo National Park, and each question carries the sentence that supports it. If you enjoy this one, our Lizards and Reptiles quizzes go wider.
30 of 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01What is the Komodo dragon's scientific name?
Varanus komodoensis
Varanus salvadorii is the crocodile monitor of New Guinea, V. varius the lace monitor and V. priscus the extinct giant megalania.
Q 02Komodo dragons are native to islands in which country?
Indonesia
They are found only on Komodo, Rinca, Flores, Gili Dasami and Gili Motang, in the Lesser Sunda chain.
Q 03The Komodo dragon belongs to which lizard family?
Varanidae (monitor lizards)
Monitors are the family that also includes Australia's perentie and lace monitor and Africa's Nile monitor.
Q 04Males can grow to roughly what maximum length?
3 m (10 ft)
The largest verified captive specimen was a shade over that, at 3.1 metres and 166 kilograms including its last meal.
Q 05What is the main prey of adult Komodo dragons in the wild?
Javan rusa deer and feral pigs
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.
Q 06Why do young Komodo dragons spend their early years up in trees?
To stay clear of cannibal adults
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.
Q 07Juvenile Komodo dragons repel hungry adults by rolling in what?
Faeces
They also rest inside the intestines of eviscerated kills, since even a cannibal dragon apparently draws the line somewhere.
Q 08How many years does a Komodo dragon take to reach maturity?
8 to 11
That slow start is balanced by a long life: they are thought to reach around 30, and one record-holder made it to 62.
Q 09Western scientists first recorded the Komodo dragon in which year?
1910
It began as rumours reaching a Dutch lieutenant; a 1912 paper by Peter Ouwens made the animal famous.
Q 10In 2021 the IUCN Red List moved the Komodo dragon to which category?
Endangered
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.
Q 11Komodo National Park was founded in which year?
1980
It became a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1991 and was later voted one of the New 7 Wonders of Nature.
Q 12In the local Komodo language the dragons are called 'sebae', meaning what?
Twins
The Komodo people traditionally believe they and the dragons share the same spiritual mother.
Q 13The 1910 reports that reached the Dutch colonial administration described the animal as what?
A 'land crocodile'
Lieutenant van Steyn van Hensbroek investigated and sent a photograph and a skin to the Zoological Museum of Bogor.
Q 21Fossils show the Komodo dragon once lived on which continent, alongside the giant lizard megalania?
Australia
Queensland fossils span from about 3.8 million years ago to at least 330,000 years ago.
Q 22Roughly how many serrated teeth does a Komodo dragon have?
About 60
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.
Q 23What colour is a Komodo dragon's forked tongue?
Yellow
Like a snake, it flicks the tongue to carry scent to the Jacobson's organ; the head-swinging walk helps it sample the air.
Q 14Peter Ouwens, who published the first paper on the species in 1912, ran a museum in which Javan city?
Bogor
He received a photo and a skin from the lieutenant plus two more specimens from a collector before writing it up.
Q 15The first two live Komodo dragons in Europe went on show at which zoo in 1927?
London Zoo
They were star exhibits in the brand-new Reptile House, where Joan Procter studied their behaviour.
Q 16A 1926 expedition to Komodo Island that returned with preserved and live specimens inspired which 1933 film?
King Kong
Burden also coined the name 'Komodo dragon'; three of his stuffed specimens are still displayed at the American Museum of Natural History.
Q 17Who is credited with coining the common name 'Komodo dragon'?
W. Douglas Burden
Before that the animal went by 'Komodo monitor' in scientific writing, and locals called it ora or buaya darat.
Q 18Which family spent 11 months on Komodo Island in 1969 tagging more than 50 dragons for a landmark study?
The Auffenbergs
Walter Auffenberg's book The Behavioral Ecology of the Komodo Monitor became the guide to keeping and breeding them in zoos.
Q 19Locals on Komodo Island call the dragon 'biawak raksasa', which translates as what?
Giant monitor
'Ora' is the other traditional name, and Burden's 'Komodo dragon' only arrived in the 1920s.
Q 20Mitochondrial DNA shows the Komodo dragon's closest living relative is which lizard?
Australia's lace monitor
A 2021 study also found their ancestors hybridised with the ancestor of the sand monitors in the late Miocene.
Q 24A Komodo dragon's skin is reinforced by tiny bones called what?
Osteoderms
They act like natural chain-mail, which is one reason the hide makes poor leather; hatchlings lack them entirely.
Q 25A 2024 study found Komodo dragon tooth serrations are coated with what?
Iron
The orange, iron-rich coating keeps the cutting edges sharp, an adaptation seen more weakly in a few other monitor species.
Q 26How often are a Komodo dragon's teeth replaced?
Every 40 days
Up to five replacement teeth queue behind each tooth position, a rate rivalled only by the crocodile monitor.
Q 27With a favourable wind, from roughly how far away can a Komodo dragon detect carrion?
4 to 9.5 km
It smells with its tongue rather than its nostrils, swinging its head side to side as it walks to sample the air.
Q 28Komodo dragons can sprint briefly at up to what speed?
20 km/h (12 mph)
They can also dive to 4.5 metres, and juveniles climb trees easily with their strong claws.
Q 29Up to what proportion of its own body mass can a Komodo dragon eat in a single meal?
80%
Afterwards it basks to speed digestion, since a meal that sits too long can rot and poison the dragon.
Q 30Thanks to a slow metabolism, a large Komodo dragon can survive on as few as how many meals a year?
12
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.