The Komodo Dragon, also known as the Komodo Monitor, Komodo Island Monitor, Ora (to the natives of Komodo), or simply Komodo (Varanus komodoensis), is the largest living species of lizard, growing to an average length of 2-3 meters (approximately 6.5-10 feet). This great length is attributed to island gigantism, as there are no carnivorous mammals to fill the niche in the islands that they live on, as well as the Komodo dragon's low metabolic rate. As a result of its great size, these lizards are labelled by some people, the term apex predators, supposedly dominating the ecosystems in which they live. They they do not to that much of an extent, Komodo dragons are a member of the monitor lizard family, Varanidae, and only inhabit the islands of Komodo, Rinca (or Rintja), Padar, Flores, Gili Motang, Owadi and Samiin in central Indonesia.

Closeup of a Komodo dragon's skin.In the wild, large adults tend to weigh around 70 kg (154 lb).Captive specimens often weigh more. They are usually between 6 and 10 feet long. The largest verified wild specimen was 3.13 metres (10 feet 3 inches) long and weighed 166 kg (365 lb), including undigested food.Komodo dragons have a tail that is as long as the body, as well as about 60 frequently-replaced serrated teeth that may be 2.5 centimetres (1 inch) in length. They have red, blood-like saliva, as they bite their own gums when they eat, thus creating an ideal culture for the virulent bacteria that live in their mouths. It also has a long, yellow, snake-like tongue.Males are larger than females, with skin color from dark gray to brick red. Females are more olive green, and have patches of yellow at the throat. The young are much more colorful by comparison, with yellow, green and white banding on a dark background.

They prefer hot and dry places, and typically live in dry open grassland, savanna and tropical forest at low elevation. As poikilotherms, they are most active in the day, although they do exhibit some nocturnal activity. Komodo dragons are largely solitary, coming together only to breed and eat. They are capable of running rapidly in brief sprints (up to 12.4 miles per hour [20 kilometers per hour]), are excellent swimmers (may dive up to 15 feet [4.57 meters]), and they climb trees proficiently through use of their strong claws.To catch prey that is out of reach, it may stand on its hind legs and use its tail as a support.As they grow older, their claws are used primarily as weapons, as their great mass makes climbing impractical for adults.

For shelter, dragons dig holes with their powerful forelimbs and claws that can measure from 3-10 feet wide (0.9-1.8 metres wide). Because of their large size and habit of sleeping in these holes, Komodo dragons are able to conserve body heat throughout the night and minimize their basking period the morning after.

Komodo dragons' sense of hearing is not particularly acute, and their visual discrimination (most especially of stationary objects) is poor. They use their tongue to detect taste and smell stimuli (as with many reptiles), which aids navigation in the dark. With the help of a favorable wind, they may be able to detect carrion up to 5 miles (8.5 kilometers) away.

Formerly, Komodo dragons were thought to be deaf when a study reported no agitation in wild Komodo dragons during whispers, raised voices, and shouts. This was disputed when London Zoological Garden employee Joan Proctor trained a captive monitor to come out to feed at the sound of her voice, even when she could not be seen.

Komodo dragons are carnivorous. Although they eat mostly carrion, studies show that they also hunt live prey with a stealthy approach followed by a sudden short charge, during which they can reach up to 20 km/h (over 12 mph). Komodo dragons have not traditionally been considered venomous, but it has recently been suggested that they may produce a weak venom. In addition to the possible venom, dragons also possess virulent bacteria in their saliva, of which more than 15 strains have been isolated. These bacteria cause septicemia in their victim; if an initial bite does not kill the prey animal and it escapes, it will commonly succumb within a week to the resulting infection. The lizard is able to locate its prey using its keen sense of smell, which can locate a dead or dying animal from a range of up to four miles. The Komodo dragon appears to be immune to its resident bacteria.

Feeding follows a social hierarchy - the dominant male eats first, with other dragons eating only when he is finished. Females, however, do not follow any set hierarchy and eat together. Komodo dragons eat by tearing large chunks of flesh while holding their food down with their forelegs then swallowing it whole. Their loosely articulated jaws, flexible skull, and expandable stomachs allow them to eat up to 80 percent of their body weight in one meal.

The Komodo dragon diet is wide-ranging, and includes invertebrates, other reptiles (including smaller dragons), birds, bird eggs, small mammals, monkeys, wild boars, goats, deer, horses, and water buffalos. Young Komodos will eat insects, eggs, and small mammals. Occasionally they have been known to consume humans and human corpses, digging up bodies from shallow graves to do so.] Over a dozen human deaths have been attributed to dragon bites in the last century, although there are reports of survivors of the resulting septicemia.

Unusually, the Komodo dragon has been observed intentionally startling a pregnant deer in the hopes of a miscarriage whose remains they can eat, a technique that has also been observed in large African predators.

Dragons were first documented by Europeans in 1910. Widespread notoriety came after 1912, in which Peter Ouwens, the director of the Zoological Museum at Bogor, Java, published a paper on the topic after receiving a photo and a skin. Later, the Komodo dragon was the driving factor for an expedition to Komodo Island by W. Douglas Burden.

The Burden expedition was approved by Henry Fairfield Osborn, president of the American Museum of Natural History, but proposed by Burden, a wealthy adventurer and hunter who offered to pay the costs, capture specimens, and obtain a live pair for exhibition at the New York Zoo. After seeking approval, Burden chose his initial crew, which included F.J. Defosse, a big-game hunter with experiences in Indo-China, Dr. E.R. Dunn, a herpetologist, and Burden's wife. Later, a Chinese cameraman named Lee Fai and 15 Malay assistants were added to the crew in Singapore.

After assembling his initial crew, Burden talked to the Dutch Colonial Government, who controlled the island of Komodo at the time. He eventually obtained permission to capture 15 Komodo dragons and to use the steamer ship S.S. Dog as transport. After stopping at Singapore and Bali, they reached Komodo Island.

The Komodo dragon is a vulnerable species and is found on the IUCN Red List.There are approximately 4000-5000 living Komodo dragons. Their populations are restricted to the islands of Rinca (1,300) and Gili Motang (100) and several of the Lesser Sunda Islands, including Komodo (1,700) and Flores (perhaps 2,000). However, there are concerns that there may presently be only 350 breeding females.

To adress these concerns, the Komodo National Park was founded in 1980 to protect Komodo dragon populations on islands including Komodo, Rinca, and Padar.

Volcanic activity, loss of habitat, fire, loss of prey, tourism, and poaching have all contributed to the vulnerable status of the Komodo dragon. Under CITES (the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species), commercial trade of skins or specimens is illegal.

There is evidence that the Komodo dragon is gradually getting accustomed to human presence, as they are often fed animal carcasses at several feeding stations by tourists.

Mating occurs between May and August, with the eggs laid in September.During this period, males fight over females and territory by grappling with one another upon their hind legs, with the loser eventually being pinned to the ground. These males may vomit or defecate when preparing for the fight.The winner of the fight will then flick his long tongue at the female to gain information about her receptivity.Females are agonistic and resist with their claws and teeth during the early phases of courtship. Therefore, the male must fully restrain the female during coitus to avoid being hurt. Other courtship displays include males rubbing their chins on the female, hard scratches to the back, and licking.Komodo dragons may be monogamous and form "pair bonds," a rare behavior for lizards.

The female will lay her eggs in the ground or in tree hollows (thereby lending them a certain degree of protection). Clutches contain an average of 20 eggs which have an incubation period of 7-8 months. The female lies on the eggs to incubate and protect them until they hatch. The hatchlings are born more or less defenseless, and many are eaten by predators.

Young Komodo dragons spend much of their first few years in trees, where they are relatively safe from predators, including cannibalistic adults, who make juvenile dragons 10 percent of their diet. When the young must approach a kill, they roll around in fecal matter and rest in the intestines of eviscerated animals to deter these hungry adults. Dragons take about three to five years to mature, and may live for up to 50 years.

There are recorded examples of parthenogenesis (reproduction without the contribution of a male), a phenomenon also known to occur in some other reptile species.
On December 20, 2006, it was reported that Flora, a captive Komodo dragon living in the Chester Zoo in England, is the second known Komodo dragon to have fertilized her eggs herself, via the process of parthenogenesis. Scientists at Liverpool University in northern England verified that Flora had had no male help by means of genetic tests on three eggs that collapsed after being moved to an incubator. (Flora had never had physical contact with a male dragon.) Sungai, a Komodo dragon at London Zoo, laid a clutch of eggs in early 2006 after being separated from males for more than two years. Scientists initially assumed that she had been able to store sperm from her earlier encounter with a male (an adaptation known as superfecundation), but after being apprised of the condition of Flora's eggs, testing showed that Sungai's eggs were also produced without outside fertilization. On 24, January 2007, zoo officials announced that several of Flora's eggs had hatched, and that the hatchlings, all male, were doing well in a new enclosure prepared for them.

Due to a ZW chromosomal sex-determination system (as opposed to a mammalian XY system), all progeny of Komodo dragon parthenogenesis are male. When a female Komodo dragon (with ZW sex chromosomes) reproduces in this manner, she provides her progeny with only one chromosome from each of her pairs of chromosomes, including only one of her two sex chromosomes. This single set of chromosomes is duplicated in the egg, which develops parthenogenetically. Eggs receiving a Z chromosome become ZZ (male) while those receiving a W chromosome become WW and fail to develop.

It has been hypothesised that that this reproductive adaptation allows a single female to enter an isolated ecological niche (such as an island) and by parthenogenesis produce male offspring, thereby establishing a sexually reproducing population (via reproduction with her offspring that can result in both male and female young).

Komodo dragons at Toronto ZooKomodo dragons have long been great zoo attractions, where their size and reputation make them popular exhibits. However, they are rare because they are susceptible to infection and parasitic disease, and do not readily reproduce.

One particularly interesting fact that has been observed in captive dragons is that many individuals display relatively tame behavior within a short period of time in captivity. Many occurrences are reported where keepers have brought the animals out of their enclosures to interact with zoo visitors, including young children, to no harmful effect. Dragons are also capable of recognizing individual humans. Ruston Hartdegen of the Dallas Zoo reported that their monitors reacted differently when presented with their regular keeper, a more or less familiar keeper, or a completely unfamiliar keeper.

Research with captive dragons has provided evidence that Komodo dragons engage in play. These studies studied a dragon who would push a shovel left by its keeper, apparently attracted to the sound of it scraping across the rocky surface. In addition, a young female dragon at the National Zoo in Wahshington, D.C. would grab and shake various objects including tow statues, beverage cans, plastic rings and blankets; as well as insert her head into boxes, shoes, and other objects. She did not confuse these objects for food, as she would only swallow them if covered in rat blood. This social play has led to a striking comparison with mammalian play.

However, even seemingly docile dragons may act unpredictably aggressive, especially when the animal's territory is invaded by someone unfamiliar. In June 2001, a dragon seriously injured Phil Bronstein - executive editor of the San Francisco Chronicle and then-husband of film actress Sharon Stone - when Bronstein entered its enclosure at the Los Angeles Zoo.

And there is the famous 8ft long Kommodo dragon's lizard's isle, in this area,
A island, of jungles, beaches, hills & villages, & beaches,
Which also had villages,
Sometimes they were attacked by these beats, with forked tongues,
Able to catch & chase cattle,
Can get a good pace, & such,

With some other isles in this part of the chain, like Savu to the S, & such,
They have been known to reach 10 feet long, & outrun people,
And weigh 3 people, even 5 healthy people at times,
But most just about 2 healthy people,

Often sadly eating people,
They resemble, slow a bit longer legged, land walking crocodiles, lizards,
With a bit more weight on them,
And the back rising, high, & the tail, fat but not very long,

With the crocodile monitor lizard in Papua New Guinea,
That is said according reports to reach 15-19 feet long,
Resembling a land based crocodile,
With longer legs, that are slimmer than Kommodos,
& smoother, & longer tails, & thinner legs,
They see you in the forest 50 feet away,

So these would weigh twice a person,
& you would not want to get near these swimming, climbing scary beasts,
But are rarely seen, & not that much wanting to see people,
They look like a cross between lizards & crocodiles, with longer legs,

And it is said early Aborigines in Australia, would have seen some a few times that length,
About 50 feet or longer,
And some kommodos that would be 30 feet that length, but then heavier than a few people,
And that some would have survived into the Chinese trading era,
Of the early first millennia, in some Indonesian isles,

And would have been eaten by locals,
& seen by some Chinese traders, in the Flores, isle areas,
But the others were quickly wiped out in Australia,
And in Indonesia, maybe by the time, of the first Millennia,
But were around during recorded history in China,
We can't live without any race, or people in the world,
Being included in some way, hopefully from 2005,
Or trying to include them, I some way, unless quite impossible,

There are some monitor lizards in Malaysia, that are 1.2 metres long,
That walk around they bushes, eating 3 metre long snakes,
With long tails, that are dark green, & slimy,
There is a yellow & black lizard in Australia that gets over 6 & a half feet,
But is normally 5 foot 7, long,
Eating small fish & carrion, & lizards

The largest lizards in Australia, one,
That walks, along roads,
Looking like a largely legged arched lizards that can get over 2 metres long,
But weighs only a quarter to a third of people, & is green,

The largest in Africa, is the creature in the Nile, near the other lizards,
The species extend sparinlgy, at small sizes down too S-Africa, but not that common,
They often live when largest up in Ugandan trees, & S-Sudan, scampering along,
But only weigh the same as the largest Australian type,
They are normally barely as long as a person, & weigh far less,

The very long tailed type in New Guinea,
Weigh about the same as most people, except when very long,
And actually may weigh the same as said up there,
Allegations of 30 feet long types, would be twice a person,

There are monitors in Sri Lanka, that climb in trees, & get 9 feet long,
Most of the time they are in water, & weigh half a person,
All monitors have forked tongues, & long necks, & snouts,
And are scary to some,

These isles where the largest lizard is, back in Indonesia,