The giant Komodo dragon is the largest lizard on the planet. Dragons of Komodo Island - how hunting strategy helps to win a deadly battle Where the Komodo dragon lives

Today there are only a few large reptiles left on Earth, the most terrible of which is the Komodo dragon living in. Cold-blooded and not too clever, this predator has, however, a chilling predestination goal, "- this is how the famous astrophysicist Karl Sagan described the Komodo monitor lizards.

THE FIRST OPENER OF CHEST VARANS

The airplane engine was forced to sneeze and worked intermittently; Fortunately, an island appeared right on the course, and the Dutch pilot Hendrik Van Boss did everything possible to reach the saving land. The plane literally plowed a small beach on its belly and stuck its nose into dense vegetation rainforest... The pilot hurriedly got out of the cockpit and, limping, ran away from the plane, and half-dressed aborigines were already hurrying to him, shouting excitedly. I will disappoint the most bloodthirsty readers: the pilot was not eaten, he was very warmly received by the inhabitants of the small island of Komodo, which is part of the Sunda archipelago.

The mountainous islet, 30 km long and 20 km wide, was covered with rainforest, in which, according to local residents, lived "buyadarat", or "earthen crocodiles". According to them, crocodiles reached 6-7 meters in length and calmly hunted deer and even attacked buffaloes. During one of the walks, the pilot himself was able to convince himself of the veracity of their stories, when the "log" lying in front of him suddenly came to life, rose on four powerful paws and waddled away in a dense bush.

According to another scenario, the pilot did not meet anyone after the plane crash and spent almost a year as Robinson in a remote part of the island. He had with him firearms, so he did not starve, but he could not get used to the presence of living "dragons" on the island. Fearing that these creatures would devour him alive, he slept in the trees. The long-awaited ship still did not come, and he, like the hero of the popular film "Outcast", made a desperate decision to embark on a risky voyage on the raft he had built. After a 57-day voyage full of hardships and dangers, the exhausted pilot reached the island of Timor.

When Hendrik Van Boss found himself in Europe, literally a few believed his stories about the huge Komodo dragons, and these were his closest relatives and friends. For some time, the Komodo dragons became a real curse for Van Boss, they wrote mocking articles about him, they called him a liar, they said that he was moved by a plane crash. Finally, one English officer, who ventured to hunt dinosaurs in the footsteps of the "crazy pilot", to his great surprise, discovered that he was telling the truth.

With the discovery of living "dragons" the torment of their discoverer Hendrik Van Boss ended, now no one called him a liar or a madman, but months of persecution were not in vain for him. It is curious that Van Bosse retired from aviation and devoted the rest of his life to the study of Komodo lizards. He died in 1938. On his grave the inscription is engraved: “Hendrik Arthur Maria Van Bosse, aviator - from an irrepressible thirst for knowledge; a lone navigator - unfortunately; the discoverer of the lizards of Komodo Island - also unfortunately; zoologist, doctor natural sciences- as a result of deception, so as not to be considered a deceiver. "

SENSATION IN THE ZOOLOGY OF THE XX CENTURY

The Komodo dragons turned out to be a large, previously unknown species of monitor lizard. The discovery of Komodo lizards has become one of the largest discoveries in zoology of the early XX century. Alas, Chinese hunters and traders immediately rushed to the island: the cult of the dragon flourishes, various drugs made from "dragon bones" have always been in demand there and were highly valued. The skins of the Komodo "dragons" and the medicines made from their fat and bones were in great demand.

Scientists got down to business, in 1938 on the islands (in addition to Komodo monitor lizards discovered on the neighboring islands - Rinja, Flores, Padar, Oveda, Sami and Gili-Motang) created a nature reserve, in this moment"Lizard" islands have the status national park... In 2013, the total number of monitor lizards was estimated at 3222 individuals, in 2015 it decreased to 3014 individuals, but in principle it remains quite stable. Alas, on Padar the monitor lizards became extinct, it is believed that this happened due to the extermination of other animals on the island by poachers, the "dragons" were simply left without prey and died of hunger.

A DREAMING AND GORGEOUS PREDATOR

When they first arrived at Komodo, scientists did not find 7-meter monitor lizards, which the local residents told about, but 3-3.5-meter animals weighing from 130 to 160 kg came across quite often. The Komodo monitor lizards attacked pigs, goats, and deer. They, of course, were not able to catch up with them, the monitor lizards just slowly creep up, often freezing in the most ridiculous poses, to the grazing animals, and then knocked them down with a powerful throw or a strong blow of their tail. There is a known case when a Komodo dragon managed to kill a powerful Indian buffalo weighing 500 kg.

The monitor lizard usually grabs its prey by the head or neck with its mouth, then it makes a sharp movement, shaking the victim with such force that it breaks its vertebrae. First thing predatory reptile rips open the belly of the killed animal and eats its insides with pleasure, only after that it is taken for the skin, meat and bones. Scientists have timed the time and found that the Komodo dragon can completely eat a 20-kilogram pig in 30 minutes. In a matter of hours, 3-4 adult monitor lizards ate a large deer weighing 100 kg.

Such a speed of food absorption is not surprising, because the monitor lizards have 26 powerful sharp teeth 4 cm long, in addition, they are able to swallow impressive pieces of meat. Great was the surprise of the scientists when in the opened stomach of one of the reptiles they saw ... half a wild boar. It is amazing that, while eating a deer, monitor lizards even eat horns and hooves. Young monitor lizards usually only scurry around feasting parents; Scientists believe that under a hot hand (sorry, paw!), large individuals may well eat their smaller relatives.

Monitor lizards and carrion, bird eggs and even insects do not disdain. Sometimes the monitor lizard bursts into a flock of monkeys descending from the tree and, taking advantage of the fact that the poor macaques literally freeze from shock, grabs one of them and literally swallows it alive. Lizards often roam the coast, looking for carrion thrown out by the waves. They swim well and can cover considerable distances in the water, controlling their tail like a rudder.

Our expedition also visited Komodo in the early 60s. Here is how I. Darevsky, by the way, a prominent Soviet herpetologist, very vividly described the meeting of scientists with the Komodo dragon: “A monitor lizard calmly emerged from the thickets and, not paying any attention to us, slowly walked along the path after the wild boars. At the same time, he did not drag his body along the ground, like many other lizards, but kept it on outstretched paws, high above the ground. This spectacle completely shocked us: illuminated by the evening sun huge lizard looked like a prehistoric monster, reminiscent of a giant dinosaur that had disappeared from Earth long ago. A snake-like head with black shining eyes and gaping ear cavities, large hanging folds of orange-brown skin on the neck gave the animal a terrifying and some kind of fabulous look.

Female monitor lizards lay up to 25 eggs, the size of which reaches a length of up to 10 centimeters. Until the hatching of the little monitor lizards, the female guards the clutch. The babies that are born immediately climb the trees so that they are not eaten by their taller relatives. The life span of Komodo monitor lizards is about 50-60 years, in zoos it is halved. They live in deep holes or in cracks among stones. Young monitor lizards often use tree hollows as a shelter.

"DRAGONS" AND PEOPLE

It is believed that Komodo monitor lizards are not dangerous to humans, but this opinion cannot be considered unambiguous. There was a case when a monitor lizard attacked children and as a result one boy died. In another case, a man was wounded who did not share the deer he shot with the monitor lizard. Scientists view these incidents as unfortunate accidents. In the first case, the monitor lizard could mistake the child for a large monkey, and in the second he was misled by the smell of a deer.

The last victim of Komodo monitor lizards in 1978 was a Swiss naturalist. He has long dreamed of seeing these exotic reptiles and specially went to Indonesia to look at the monitor lizards and get acquainted with their habits and life. During his stay on the island, the naturalist lagged behind the group, apparently deciding to engage in independent research. No one saw him again. The undertaken searches yielded practically nothing, only glasses and a camera of the naturalist were found. Without a doubt, this man was eaten by monitor lizards. After this tragic incident, the huntsmen now do not for a moment leave tourists, scientists, and journalists arriving on the island.

Monitor lizards have an excellent sense of smell, they find graves and, if they are shallow, tear them apart and eat corpses, this, of course, causes great discontent among local residents. True, in last years the graves began to be covered with massive slabs and their ravaging by monitor lizards stopped. The sense of smell helps monitor lizards to find carrion on the shore or a wounded animal at a very significant distance.

Tourists with minor wounds and scratches, and even women on so-called difficult days can arouse increased interest in monitor lizards and provoke their attack.

Bites of monitor lizards are very dangerous. Due to the fact that they feed on carrion, there is a mass in their mouth pathogenic microbes, a reptile bite threatens with blood poisoning, loss of a limb or death. In addition, scientists have established the presence of a poisonous gland in monitor lizards. It turns out that they are also poisonous. That is why these reptiles should not be considered safe. At the same time, in zoos, monitor lizards usually do not cause any complaints from the staff, they are obedient, peaceful and picky about food.

site - Let's dream together, today will surprise you with facts about himself ancient lizard planets. Dragon from Komodo Island, have you heard of this? If not, then the films have been seen for sure.

It was these reptiles that became the prototype for the protagonist in horror films. They inspired the directors to create the most incredible stories.

Giant monitor lizards actually exist: they are lizards from the island of Komodo.

Where do dragons live and how they appeared on the islands of Indonesia

There is such a term: island gigantism. This is such a phenomenon of nature: in a closed and isolated space, from generation to generation, animals increase in size.

Almost like in the movie "Jurassic Park", but there scientists have created the right conditions. And in Indonesia, everything happened naturally. Although the theory is quite controversial.

Once upon a time in Australia (an isolated continent) and on the island of Java, huge predators lived and lived - giant monitor lizards. This is the home of dragons. The oldest fossilized remains of them date back almost 4 million years ago. The extinction of many animal species in the Pleistocene era did not affect the Komodo dragons.

How did the lizards survive?

They promptly changed their location and took root on the islands of Indonesia closest to the continent. The ocean went down and up. The continents moved, and they calmly waited out on the islands. This helped to save the lizards from extinction. So they ended up on the island of Flores and nearby.

The giant monitor lizard lives only on five Indonesian islands - Komodo, Rinka, Flores, Gili Motang and Padar.

What do lizards look like?

They are really scary in appearance, and scaly skin, and tongue, forked like a snake. They can reach up to 80, and sometimes up to 100 kilograms. Possess poisonous bites allowing them to hunt and kill large animals and sometimes even humans. But first things first.

The dark terracotta hide has many protective lamellar ossifications. This is a kind of "ground crocodile" armor. The average lizard is not too huge: it weighs only 50 kilograms and up to 3 meters in length. Sometimes there are copies that want to get into the book of records and much more.

Komodo dragons have no direct predators

Loners in life

Komodo monitor lizards are lone predators. They gather in groups only for the period of mating games and during large hunts (there are some).

They live in burrows deep up to 4-5 meters or in tree hollows (mostly young people). Everything is like people. Life expectancy is up to 45-50 years. Young monitor lizards easily climb trees.

Only big crocodiles and people.

Jungle Sprinters

Despite the external sluggishness, these are capable of lightning-fast ambush attacks. Don't underestimate their abilities. In terms of movement speed, he can compete with a sprinter at short distances. Develops a speed of up to 20 km / h.

A special opening under the tongue allows him to move and breathe at the same time while running. The pump pumps air and does not take away strength in the pursuit, increasing endurance and the chances of winning.

What do Komodo lizards eat?

Predatory lizards. The favorite meal is meat. And who does not matter at all. A large or small animal, fish, turtle or large insect. They can also eat their relatives for lunch. Do not hesitate to break their holes with cubs and feast on. In the video below, you can see how he feasts on snake eggs.

Often, during the famine period, fresh and not very graves are torn apart and corpses are eaten. Therefore, the inhabitants of the islands (Indonesians) bury their inhabitants, covering the graves with cement slabs.

Hunting rules - the victim has no chance

Like crocodiles, giant monitor lizards severely injure their prey with their first bite. By ripping out huge chunks of muscle, breaking bones and tearing arteries. Therefore, the mortality rate from their bites is 99%. The victims have virtually no chance of survival.

In addition to severe trauma, there is poison in the saliva of the monitor lizards, which quickly causes sepsis. In the lower jaw of a mammal there are 2 poisonous glands through which the poison enters.

Photos of the Komodo dragon only confirm the speculation about extinct dinosaurs.

Sharp teeth rip open the victim like a can opener

Unusual ability to reproduce without fertilization

The population of lizards is 3: 1, there are many times more males than females. Which makes the battle for the female a deadly tournament of the strongest.

They lay up to 20 eggs in deep burrows. For 9 months, the female guards the nest with offspring. Up to 2 years old, young individuals live in tree crowns.

These reptiles have an ability: parthenogenesis. Reproduction sexually and not sexually. Egg cells develop easily even without direct fertilization.

In case of storms and earthquakes. Females can reproduce offspring without males.

Toxic lizard saliva

The poison slows down the victim's blood clotting, causes muscle paralysis, dramatically lowers blood pressure and causes hypothermia, followed by shock and loss of consciousness. This allows the predator to finish off and eat the unfortunate with ease.

The toxicity of saliva helps the predators themselves digest food faster.

Thanks to a good instinct and scent, by the smell of blood, it is easy to determine the direction to the victim within a radius of 5 - 9 kilometers. The forked tongue also contributes to this.

For one lunch, they can eat meat up to 85% of the weight own body... The stomach tends to stretch a lot.

The high immunity of Komodo lizards allows them to survive in unfavorable conditions with minimal losses

A way to have a quick lunch

For faster swallowing of prey, they have invented an unusual way.

Run up against a tree or big Stone and stretch their body on her, fixing with their paws.

They react sharply even to the faint smell of blood. There are known cases of attacks on tourists with minor scratches on their hands or feet.

The high immunity of Komodo lizards allows them to survive in adverse conditions with minimal losses.

For a long time it was assumed that the saliva of the lizards contains a large number of pathogenic bacteria and microorganisms. Until 2009, it was believed, until the research of Brian Frye proved that the venom of the lizards is not as toxic and poisonous as that of snakes.

Reacts sharply even to the faint smell of blood

Unusual dragon hunting strategy

The jaws of the lizard are not as strong as that of the closest relative of the crocodile. And they noticeably lose in newtons. 2600 N versus almost 7000 N crocodile. The monitor lizard has a much weaker grip, so it uses unusual strategy attacks.

As we already wrote in the article, they tear apart prey by making chaotic movements with their heads. Waving in all directions, finishing off the unfortunate and pulling him into the water.

The lizards have a different tactic: having firmly seized the animal, they begin to pull it in their direction, resting on their powerful paws and helping with long claws.

Sharp teeth rip open the victim like a can opener. Chunks of flesh are ripped off and mortal wounds are inflicted. Violent jerks on oneself and rotations of the neck allow inflicting wounds that are incompatible with life.
In such a fight, there is only one winner - a monitor lizard from Komodo Island.

Video: 8 facts about the Komodo dragon

They do not have direct predators (by the way, humans also do not), and now they feel quite at ease. As if waiting for the right moment to lead the hierarchy. True, they do not increase in size. Maybe for now?

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Dragon from Komodo Island (lat. Varanus komodoensis), he is also a Komodo monitor lizard, he is also a giant Indonesian monitor lizard - this is a lizard with the most impressive dimensions in the world.

flickr / Antoni Sesen

The average weight of the giant is 90 kg, and the body length, respectively, 2.5 m, while the tail occupies almost half of the body. And the length of the most powerful specimen, the parameters of which were officially recorded, exceeded 3 meters with a weight of 160 kg.

The appearance of the Komodo dragon is the most predestined - either a lizard, or a dragon, or a dinosaur. And the island natives believe that most of all this creature looks like an alligator, and therefore they call it Buyya Darat, which in translation from the local dialect means a land crocodile. And although the Komodo dragon has only one head and does not spew sheaves of flame from its nostrils, something aggressive in the appearance of this reptile is undoubtedly present.

This impression is enhanced by the color of the monitor lizard - dark brown, with yellowish blotches, and (especially!) appearance teeth - squeezed from the sides, with cutting, jagged edges. A quick glance at this perfect arsenal, which is a "dragon" jaw, is enough to understand that the Komodo dragon is not a joke. More than 60 teeth and a jaw-like structure that resembles a shark's mouth - is this not perfect car for killing?

What is the diet of a giant reptile? No, no, the lizards have only superficial similarities with vegetarian dinosaurs: the Komodo dragon's gastronomic addictions are strikingly different from food preferences ancient ancestor... The tastes of the lizard are distinguished by an enviable variety: it does not disdain carrion and readily absorbs any living creature - from insects and birds to horses, buffaloes, deer and even its own brethren. Maybe it is for this reason that newborn lizards, having barely hatched, immediately leave their mother, hiding from her in the dense crown of trees?

Indeed, cannibalism is quite common among Komodo dragons: in the lunch menu of adult monitor lizards, young relatives, smaller in size, often turn out to be. A hungry monitor lizard can pose a threat to humans, and there are often cases when the prey coincides in its weight category with the attacker. How do the lizards manage to prevail over the prey? The monitor lizards hunt down large prey from an ambush, and at the time of the attack they either knock down the victim with a powerful blow of the tail, breaking its legs, or bite into the flesh of a wild boar or deer with their teeth, inflicting a deadly lacerated wound.

The chances of survival in a wounded animal are scanty, because during a bite, they penetrate into its body dangerous bacteria from oral cavity lizard, as well as poison from the venom glands of the lower jaw of the reptile. The inflammation develops at an accelerated pace, and the Komodo dragon can only wait until the victim is completely exhausted and unable to resist. He stubbornly follows the wounded prey, not letting go of it. Sometimes such tracking lasts up to three weeks - after so much time, a buffalo bitten by a monitor lizard dies.

In the photo I am a dragon and a slightly agitated Lera :)

Those who want to see such handsome people in natural environment habitat would have to go to the Indonesian islands, since the Komodo dragons live there. However, daredevils who have conceived such a journey should be as careful as possible: monitor lizards have a keen sense of smell, and even a tiny drop of blood from a minor scratch on the body can attract a lizard located at a distance of 5 km with its smell. There have been cases of attacks on tourists, so the huntsmen accompanying the tourist groups are usually armed with long strong poles. Just in case.

Komodo is a small island in Indonesia, famous all over the world for its giant monitor lizards or dragons. These largest lizards on earth grow up to 3 meters in length and weigh 150 kilograms. Their bite is poisonous and they are dangerous to humans.

Since adult dragons have a very good sense of smell, they can locate the source of the scent of blood up to 5 km away. Several cases have been documented in which Komodo monitors tried to attack tourists with minor open wounds or scratches. A similar danger threatens women who visit the island while in their menstrual cycle ...

We arrived at the island early in the morning. For some reason, I imagined it flat and stony, but it turned out to be green and hilly, similar to Tolkien's Inter-Earth:

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There is no port on the island and we stopped at the roadstead. The pies of the natives immediately approached us:

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Someone just watched with interest the huge white ship, while someone tried to sell local beads and wood crafts:

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At first, I did not understand how they were going to take money from me and transfer the goods to me, given that the open deck of the ship is at the height of the 5th floor:

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Everything fell into place when we descended into the boats to get to the shore:

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There was no pier where our liner could moor on the Island and we were taken to the shore on Tenders (lifeboats):

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Each boat can comfortably accommodate 80 passengers. In case of an emergency, if the boat needs to be used for its intended purpose, 2 times more will fit here:

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The island has a small fishing village, where about 700 people live. They were all fenced off from tourists with an invisible fence so that they would not bother too much with their souvenirs for "van dole!":

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Souvenirs could be purchased both from local children and in a civilized way - in a beach shop:

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Inland we were accompanied by several rangers and locals. The locals had long sticks in their hands with a spear at the end. They defend against dragons with them. In the event of an attack, they rest against the dragon's eyes with a spear and push it away from themselves:

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On the territory of the park, in the jungle, paths have been cut along which tourists are taken:

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These are not bananas, but the fruit of the cotton tree:

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When they ripen, they open up and become like large lumps of cotton wool:

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On the island of Komodo, there are not only giant lizards, but also specimens of quite usual sizes:

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I was too lazy to change the lens. These ants are filmed for 500:

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Flying Lizard:

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Deer is the dragon's favorite food. Having tracked down a deer, wild boar or buffalo in the bushes, the dragon attacks and seeks to inflict a lacerated wound on the animal, into which poison and many bacteria are introduced from the mouth of the monitor lizard. Even the largest male dragons do not have enough strength to immediately defeat a large hoofed animal, but as a result of such an attack, the victim's wound becomes inflamed, blood poisoning occurs, the animal gradually weakens and after a while dies. Lizards are left only to follow the victim until she dies. The time it takes for it to die differs depending on its size. For example, in a buffalo, death occurs after 3 weeks.

At one time, they conducted an experiment and tried to feed the monitor lizards with the brought deer, but they began to get sick and die. For some reason, they can only eat local animals:

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In total, about 1000 passengers descended on the island. We were divided into groups of 25 people and taken along the same route with an interval of 5 minutes:

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Dragons were "prepared" for us on the route in advance. If you take a closer look at their bellies, you will see that they recently ate a satisfying meal and simply cannot move:

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In December 1910, the Dutch administration on the island of Java received information from Stein van Hensbruck, the Governor of Flores Island (for civil affairs), that no known to science giant creatures.

Van Stein's report said that in the vicinity of Labuan Badi of Flores Island, as well as on the nearby island of Komodo, an animal lives, which the local natives call "buya-darat", which means "earthen crocodile".

Of course, you already guessed who will be discussed now ...

According to local residents, the length of some monsters reaches seven meters, and three- and four-meter buya-darat are common. The curator of the Butsnzorg Zoological Museum at the Botanical Park of West Java Province, Peter Owen, immediately entered into correspondence with the island's manager and asked him to organize an expedition in order to get a reptile unknown to European science.

This was done, although the first lizard caught was only 2 meters 20 centimeters long. Hensbrook sent her skin and photographs to Owens. In an accompanying note, he said that he would try to catch a larger specimen, although it was not easy to do this, since the natives were terrified of these monsters. Convinced that the giant reptile was not a myth, the Zoological Museum sent a trapping specialist to Flores. As a result, the staff of the zoological museum managed to get four specimens of "earthen crocodiles", and the length of two was almost three meters.

In 1912, Peter Owen published an article in the Botanical Garden Bulletin about the existence of a new species of reptile, calling the animal previously unknown to the spider the Komodo monitor lizard (Varanus komodoensis Ouwens). Later it turned out that giant monitor lizards are found not only on Komodo, but also on the small islands of Ritya and Padar, lying to the west of Flores. A careful study of the archives of the Sultanate showed that this animal was mentioned in archives dating back to 1840.

The first World War forced to stop research, and only 12 years later, interest in the Komodo dragon resumed. Now the main researchers of the giant reptile are US zoologists. On English language this reptile became known as the comodo dragon. For the first time, the expedition of Douglas Barden managed to catch a live individual in 1926. In addition to two living specimens, Barden also brought 12 stuffed animals to the United States, three of which are on display at the American Museum of Natural History in New York.

Indonesian National park Komodo National Park, protected by UNESCO, was founded in 1980 and includes a group of islands with adjacent warm waters and coral reefs an area of ​​over 170 thousand hectares.
The islands of Komodo and Rincha are the largest in the reserve. Of course, the main celebrity of the park is the Komodo lizards. However, many tourists come here to see the unique terrestrial and underwater flora and fauna of Komodo. There are about 100 species of fish here. In the sea there are about 260 species of reef corals, 70 species of sponges.
The national park is also home to animals such as the maned sambar, Asian water buffalo, wild boar, and Javanese macaques.

It was Barden who established true dimensions these animals and refuted the myth of seven-meter giants. It turned out that males rarely exceed three meters in length, and females are much smaller, their length is no more than two meters.

Long-term research has made it possible to study well the habits and lifestyle giant reptiles... It turned out that Komodo monitor lizards, like other cold-blooded animals, are active only from 6 to 10 in the morning and from 3 to 5 in the evening. They prefer dry, well-warmed areas by the sun, and are usually tied to arid plains, savannas and dry rainforests.

In the hot season (May - October), they often adhere to dry riverbeds with banks overgrown with jungle. Young animals can climb well and spend a lot of time in trees, where they find food, and in addition, they hide from their own adult relatives. Giant monitor lizards are cannibals, and adults, on occasion, will not miss the opportunity to feast on smaller congeners. As shelters from the heat and cold, monitor lizards use burrows 1-5 m long, which they dig with the help of strong paws with long, curved and sharp claws. Hollows of trees often serve as shelters for young monitor lizards.

Komodo dragons, despite their size and external clumsiness, good runners... At short distances, reptiles can reach speeds of up to 20 kilometers, and at long distances, their speed is 10 km / h. To get food that is at a height (for example, on a tree), monitor lizards can stand on hind legs using the tail as a support. Reptiles have good hearing, keen eyesight, but their most important sense organ is the sense of smell. These reptiles are able to smell falling or blood at a distance of even 11 kilometers.

Most of the monitor lizard population lives in the western and northern parts of the Flores Islands - about 2000 specimens. About 1000 live on Komodo and Rincha, and on the smallest islands of the Gili Motang and Nusa Kode groups, only 100 individuals each.

At the same time, it was noticed that the number of monitor lizards has fallen and the individuals are gradually becoming smaller. They say that the decline in the number of wild ungulates on the islands due to poaching is to blame, so the monitor lizards are forced to switch to smaller food.

From modern species only the dragon of Komodo Island and the crocodile monitor attack prey much larger than itself. The crocodile monitor lizard has teeth very long and almost straight. It is an evolutionary adaptation for successful bird feeding (penetration of dense plumage). They also have serrated edges, and the teeth of the upper and lower jaws can act like scissors, making it easier for them to dismember prey in the tree, where they spend most of their life.

Venomtooths - poisonous lizards... Today, two types of them are known - the gila monster and the escorpion. They live mainly in the southwestern United States and Mexico in rocky foothills, semi-deserts and deserts. Gila moths are most active in spring, when their favorite food appears - bird eggs. They also feed on insects, small lizards and snakes. The poison is produced by the submandibular and sublingual salivary glands and flows through the ducts to the teeth of the lower jaw. When bitten, the teeth of gila monsters - long and curved back - enter the body of the victim by almost half a centimeter.

The monitor lizards menu includes a wide variety of animals. They practically eat everything: large insects and their larvae, crabs and fish discarded by storms, rodents. And although monitor lizards are born scavengers, they are also active hunters, and often large animals become their prey: wild boars, deer, dogs, domestic and feral goats and even the largest ungulates of these islands - Asian water buffaloes.
Giant monitor lizards do not actively pursue their prey, but more often conceal it and grab it when it itself approaches a close distance.

When hunting large animals, reptiles use very intelligent tactics. Adult monitor lizards, leaving the forest, slowly go to grazing animals, from time to time they stop and fall to the ground if they feel that they are attracting their attention. Wild boars, they can knock deer down with a blow of their tail, but more often they use their teeth - inflicting a single bite in the leg of the animal. This is where success lies. After all, now it has been launched " biological weapons»Komodo dragon.

For a long time it was believed that the victim is ultimately killed by pathogens in the saliva of the monitor lizard. But in 2009, scientists found that in addition to the "deadly cocktail" of pathogenic bacteria and viruses in saliva, to which the monitor lizards themselves have immunity, reptiles are poisonous.

Research led by Bryan Fry from the University of Queensland (Australia) has shown that the number and types of bacteria commonly found in the mouth of the Komodo dragon is not fundamentally different from other carnivores.

Moreover, as Fry states, the Komodo dragon is a very clean animal.

The Komodo monitor lizards inhabiting the islands of Indonesia are the most large predators on these islands. They hunt pigs, deer and Asian buffaloes. 75% of pigs and deer die from the bite of a monitor lizard after 30 minutes from blood loss, another 15% - after 3-4 hours from the poison secreted by its salivary glands.

A larger animal - a buffalo, being attacked by a monitor lizard, always, despite deep wounds, leaves the predator alive. Following its instinct, a bitten buffalo usually tries to find refuge in a warm body of water, the water of which is teeming anaerobic bacteria, and eventually dies from the infection entering his legs through the wounds.

Pathogenic bacteria found in the mouth of the Komodo monitor lizard in previous studies, according to Fry, are traces of infections that enter his body from an infected drinking water... The number of these bacteria is not enough to cause the death of a buffalo from a bite.

The Komodo dragon has two venom glands in the lower jaw that produce toxic proteins. When these proteins enter the victim's body, they prevent blood clotting, reduce blood pressure, contribute to muscle paralysis and the development of hypothermia. Everything in general leads the victim to shock or loss of consciousness. The poisonous gland of Komodo monitor lizards is more primitive than that of poisonous snakes... The gland is located on the lower jaw under the salivary glands, its ducts open at the base of the teeth, rather than being excreted through special channels in poisonous teeth, like in snakes.

In the mouth, poison and saliva mix with decaying food debris to form a mixture in which many different deadly bacteria multiply. But it was not this that surprised the scientists, but the poison delivery system. It turned out to be the most complex of all such systems in reptiles. Instead of injecting with one blow with their teeth, like poisonous snakes, the monitor lizards have to literally rub it into the victim's wound, making jerking jaws. This evolutionary invention has helped giant monitor lizards survive for millennia.

After a successful attack, time begins to work for the reptile, and the hunter has to go all the time on the heels of the victim. The wound does not heal, the animal is getting weaker every day. After two weeks, even such a large animal as a buffalo has no strength left, its legs buckle and it falls. It's time for the lizard to feast on. He slowly approaches the victim and rushes at her. His relatives come running to the smell of blood. In places of feeding, fights often occur between equivalent males. As a rule, they are cruel, but not fatal, as evidenced by the numerous scars on their bodies.

For people, a huge head covered, like a shell, with unkind, unblinking eyes, a toothy gaping mouth, from which protrudes a forked tongue, which is in motion all the time, a bumpy and folded body of dark brown color on strong spread legs with long claws and a massive tail is a living embodiment of the image of extinct monsters of distant eras. One can only marvel how such creatures were able to survive in our days practically unchanged.

Paleontologists believe that the ancestors of the Komodo dragon appeared in Australia 5-10 million years ago. This assumption is in good agreement with the fact that the only known representative of large reptiles, Megalania prisca, measuring from 5 to 7 m and weighing 650-700 kg, was found on this continent. Megalania, and the full name of the monstrous reptile can be translated from Latin Like the “great ancient vagabond”, he preferred, like the Komodo dragon, to settle in grassy savannas and thin forests, where he hunted mammals, including very large mammals such as diprodonts, various reptiles and birds. They were the largest venomous creatures that have ever existed on Earth.

Fortunately, these animals became extinct, but their place was taken by the Komodo dragon, and now it is these reptiles that attract thousands of people to come to the forgotten islands to see in natural conditions the last representatives of the ancient world.

Indonesia has 17,504 islands, although these figures are not final. The Indonesian government has set itself the difficult task of conducting a complete audit of all Indonesian islands without exception. And who knows, maybe, after its end, there will still be unopened known to people animals, albeit not as dangerous as Komodo monitor lizards, but certainly no less amazing!