Komodo or giant Indonesian monitor lizard is considered the largest lizard in the world. In some countries it is called a dragon, which, in general, is not a mistake.

The length of adults can be about 70 kg, but in captivity they can reach even larger sizes. According to Western sources, the largest individual encountered in the wild weighed as much as 166 kilograms, and its length reached 313 centimeters! The color of the lizards is dark brown with speckles, but in young animals it is somewhat brighter.

You can meet this reptile on the following islands of Indonesia: Flores, Jili Motang, Komodo and Rincha. The total number of individuals is just over 5000 copies. Scientists believe that this species once lived in Australia, but then moved to the nearest islands. It happened many thousands of years ago.

As a rule, monitor lizards are active only during the day, hiding in shelters at night. But even in the daytime, they prefer to be in the shade, hiding from the scorching sun. The animal lives in savannahs, dry tropical forests and arid plains. It swims well, willingly enters sea water and is even able to swim across to a neighboring island. Despite the seeming immobility, the dragon is capable of reaching speeds of up to 20 km / h, however, at short distances. In addition, it is able to get food from trees, standing on its hind legs. Juveniles, on the other hand, perfectly climb trees, spending a lot of time there. Interestingly, they have no enemies, except that snakes and some birds of prey prey on young individuals.

Monitor lizards can eat a wide variety of animals. So, they can eat both insects and rodents, as well as large animals, such as horses or buffaloes. At the same time, they have developed cannibalism, especially in times of famine. Adult monitor lizards usually hunt large prey from ambush. Knocking her down, the reptile immediately bites its prey. As a rule, after this, the damaged animal gets up and leaves. However, after a while, he will still die, because the monitor lizard brought him poison and a lot of bacteria in the wound. After about three weeks, a bitten, say, buffalo dies of blood poisoning. The lizard feels the smell of carrion at a great distance and immediately runs to feed. Other representatives of this species also flock here, and fights often occur between them. By the way, adults feed mainly only on carrion.

The Komodo dragon is dangerous to humans because inflammation, sepsis, begins after a bite. Scientists have long believed that the problem is in the bacteria that are in the oral cavity of the animal. This is true and in total about 57 different strains of bacteria have been found. However, only a few years ago, experts found out that the dragon's mouth also has two poisonous glands, which are located in the lower part of the jaw. The venom itself contains toxic proteins that lower blood pressure, paralyze muscles, develop hypothermia, lead to a state of shock and cause unconsciousness in the bitten person.

In general, this type of monitor lizard is not so dangerous for humans, although attacks have been recorded far more than once. Apparently, the animal simply confuses people with its usual food. Since their bites are dangerous, you should immediately seek medical help, otherwise a fatal outcome is 99% possible. It is also worth noting that the lizard smells rot or blood at a distance of up to five kilometers, so if you have a wound, then it is better not to visit the island. This fully applies to women who have begun menstruation. And local residents suffer from reptiles, or rather those whom they buried - monitor lizards dig up buried corpses and feed on them. Now the dead are kept using dense cast cement slabs.

In December 1910, the Dutch administration on the island of Java received information from the administrator of Flores Island (for civil affairs), Stein van Hensbroek, that giant creatures unknown to science inhabit the outlying islands of the Lesser Sunda Archipelago.

Van Stein's report stated 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 "buaya-darat", which means "earthen crocodile".

Komodo dragons are one of the species potentially dangerous to humans, although they are less dangerous than crocodiles or sharks and do not pose a direct danger to adults.

According to local residents, the length of some monsters reaches seven meters, and three- and four-meter buya-darats 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 manager of the island and asked him to organize an expedition to get a reptile unknown to European science.

This was done, although the first lizard caught was only 2 meters 20 centimeters long. Her skin and photographs were sent by Hensbroek to Owens. In the accompanying note, he said that he would try to catch a larger specimen, although this was not easy to do, since the natives were terribly afraid of these monsters. Convinced that the giant reptile was not a myth, the Zoological Museum sent an animal trapping specialist to Flores. As a result, the employees of the Zoological Museum managed to get four specimens of "earth crocodiles", two of which were almost three meters long.

In 1912, Peter Owens published an article in the Bulletin of the Botanical Garden about the existence of a new species of reptile, naming an animal previously unknown to the spider. komodo dragon (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 west of Flores. A careful study of the archives of the Sultanate showed that this animal was mentioned in the archives dating back to 1840.

The First World War forced to stop research, and only 12 years later interest in the Komodo monitor resumed. Now, US zoologists have become the main researchers of the giant reptile. In English, this reptile became known as komodo dragon(comodo dragon). For the first time, a live specimen was caught by the expedition of Douglas Barden in 1926. In addition to two living specimens, Barden also brought 12 effigies to the United States, three of which are on display at the American Museum of Natural History in New York.

RESERVED ISLANDS

The Indonesian Komodo National Park, protected by UNESCO, was founded in 1980 and includes a group of islands with adjacent warm waters and coral reefs with an area of ​​more than 170 thousand hectares.
The islands of Komodo and Rinca are the largest in the reserve. Of course, the main celebrity of the park is Komodo dragons. 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. There are about 260 species of reef corals and 70 species of sponges in the sea.
The national park is also home to such animals as the maned sambar, Asian water buffalo, wild boar, Javan macaque.

It was Barden who established the true size of these animals and refuted the myth of seven-meter giants. It turned out that males rarely exceed the length of three meters, and females are much smaller, their length is not more than two meters.

One bite is enough

Years of research have made it possible to study well the habits and lifestyle of giant reptiles. It turned out that Komodo dragons, like other cold-blooded animals, are active only from 6 to 10 am and from 3 to 5 pm. They prefer dry, well-sun areas, and are generally associated with arid plains, savannahs, and tropical dry forests.

In the hot season (May-October), they often stick to dry riverbeds with jungle-covered banks. 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 relatives. As shelters from heat and cold, monitor lizards use burrows 1-5 m long, which they dig with strong paws with long, curved and sharp claws. Hollow trees often serve as shelters for young monitor lizards.

Komodo dragons, despite their size and outward clumsiness, are 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 from a height (for example, on a tree), monitor lizards can stand on their hind legs, using their tail as a support. Reptiles have good hearing, sharp eyesight, but their most important sense organ is the sense of smell. These reptiles are able to smell carrion 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 individuals are gradually shrinking. They say that the decline in the number of wild ungulates on the islands due to poaching is to blame, so monitor lizards are forced to switch to smaller food.

In the photo m A young Komodo dragon on the carcass of an Asian water buffalo. The power of the jaws of monitor lizards is fantastic. Without effort, they open the victim's chest, cutting through the ribs like a huge can opener.

GAD BROTHERHOOD

Of the modern species, only the Komodo dragon and the crocodile monitor attack prey much larger than themselves. The crocodile monitor lizard has very long and almost straight teeth. This is an evolutionary adaptation for successful feeding by birds (breaking through dense plumage). They also have serrated edges, and the teeth of the upper and lower jaws can act like scissors, which makes it easier for them to dismember prey in the tree, where they spend most of their lives.

Yadozuby - poisonous lizards. Today, two species are known - gila monster and escorpion. They live mainly in the southwestern United States and Mexico in rocky foothills, semi-deserts and deserts. The most active poisonous teeth are in the 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 the gila teeth - long and curved back - almost half a centimeter enter the body of the victim.

The menu of monitor lizards includes a wide variety of animals. They practically eat everything: large insects and their larvae, crabs and fish thrown out 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 rather steal it and grab it when it comes close by itself.

When hunting large animals, reptiles use very reasonable tactics. Adult monitor lizards, leaving the forest, slowly move towards grazing animals, from time to time they stop and crouch to the ground if they feel that they are attracting their attention. They can knock down wild boars, deer with a blow of their tail, but more often they use their teeth - inflicting a single bite on the animal's leg. This is where success lies. After all, now the “biological weapon” of the Komodo dragon has been launched.

Reptiles have good hearing, sharp eyesight, but their most important sense organ is the sense of smell.

For a long time it was believed that the victim was eventually killed by disease-causing organisms in the monitor lizard's saliva. But in 2009, scientists found that in addition to the “deadly cocktail” of pathogenic bacteria and viruses in saliva, to which monitor lizards themselves have immunity, reptiles are poisonous.

The Komodo dragon has two venom glands in its lower jaw that produce toxic proteins. These proteins, when released into the body of the victim, prevent blood clotting, lower blood pressure, contribute to muscle paralysis and the development of hypothermia. Everything in general leads the victim to shock or loss of consciousness. The venom gland of Komodo monitor lizards is more primitive than that of poisonous snakes. The gland is located in the lower jaw under the salivary glands, its ducts open at the base of the teeth, and do not exit through special channels in poisonous teeth, as in snakes.

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

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

Who is next?

For people, a huge head covered like a shell, with unkind, unblinking eyes, a toothy gaping mouth, from which a forked tongue protrudes, all the time in motion, a bumpy and folded body of a 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 be amazed at how such creatures could survive today practically unchanged.

The only known representative of large reptiles - Megalania prisca sizes from 5 to 7 m and weighing 650-700 kg

Paleontologists believe that 5-10 million years ago the ancestors of the Komodo dragon appeared in Australia. This assumption fits well with the fact that the only known representative of large reptiles is 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 as “the great ancient tramp”, preferred, like the Komodo monitor lizard, to settle in grassy savannahs and sparse forests, where he hunted mammals, including very large ones, such as diprodonts, various reptiles and birds. These were the largest poisonous creatures that ever existed on Earth.

Fortunately, these animals died out, but the Komodo dragon took their place, and now it is these reptiles that attract thousands of people to come to the time-forgotten islands to see the last representatives of the ancient world in natural conditions.

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

100 Great Wildlife Records Nepomniachtchi Nikolay Nikolayevich

THE LARGEST LIZARD IN THE WORLD - THE LIZARD FROM KOMODO ISLAND

The largest lizard, reaching 4 m in length and weighing 180 kg. It feeds mainly on carrion, but also attacks ungulates.

The unique Komodo National Park is world famous, protected by UNESCO and includes a group of islands with adjacent warm waters and coral reefs with an area of ​​more than 170 thousand hectares. The islands of Komodo and Rinca are the largest in the reserve. Their main attraction is "dragons", giant monitor lizards, found nowhere else on the planet.

FROM THE HISTORY OF DISCOVERY

In 1912, one pilot made an emergency landing on Komodo, an island 30 km long and 20 km wide, located between the islands of Sumbawa and Flores, which are part of the Sunda archipelago. Komodo is almost entirely covered with mountains and dense tropical vegetation, and its only inhabitants were exiles, once subjects of the Sumbawa Raja. The pilot told amazing things about his stay in this tiny exotic world: he saw huge, terrible four-meter-long dragons there, which, according to local residents, devour pigs, goats and deer, and sometimes attack horses. Of course, no one believed a single word he said.

However, some time later Major P.-A. Owens, director of the Butensorg Botanical Gardens, proved that these giant reptiles do exist. In December 1918, Owens, determined to learn the secret of the Komodo monsters, wrote to Flores Island's civil administrator, van Stein. The inhabitants of the island told that in the vicinity of Labuan Badio, as well as on the nearby island of Komodo, “buaya-darat”, that is, “earth crocodile”, lives.

Van Stein became interested in their message and was determined to find out as much as possible about this curious animal, and if he was lucky, then get one individual. When the affairs of the service brought him to Komodo, he received the information he was interested in from two local pearl divers - Kok and Aldegon. They both claimed that among the giant lizards there were instances of six or even seven meters in length, and one of them even boasted that he personally killed several of these lizards.

During his stay on Komodo, van Stein was not as lucky as his new acquaintances. Nevertheless, he managed to get a specimen 2 m 20 cm long, the skin and photograph of which he sent to Major Owens. In a cover letter, he said that he would try to catch a larger specimen, although this would not be easy: the natives were afraid, like death, of the teeth of these monsters, as well as the blows of their terrible tails.

Then the Butensorg Zoological Museum hastily sent him a Malay specialist in trapping animals to help him. However, van Stein was soon transferred to Timor, and he could not participate in the hunt for the mysterious dragon, which this time ended successfully. The Raja Ritara placed hunters and dogs at the disposal of the Malay, and he was fortunate enough to catch four "earth crocodiles" alive, two of which turned out to be quite good specimens: their length was a little less than three meters. And some time later, according to van Stein, some Sergeant Becker shot a four-meter-long specimen.

In these monsters, witnesses of past epochs, Owens easily recognized monitor lizards of a large variety. He described this species in the Bulletin of the Butensorg Botanical Garden, calling it Varanus komodensis.

Later it turned out that this huge dragon is also found on the tiny islands of Ritya and Padar, lying to the west of Flores. Finally, it became known that this animal was mentioned in the Bim archives dating back to about 1840.

A well-known German hunter, who killed many lions, tigers and other dangerous predators in his life, died on Komodo Island under unclear circumstances. He went to photograph a flock of monitor lizards and did not return. On the shore of the swamp, they found only his shoes and a warped movie camera.

It is possible that he was convinced in his own skin of the reliability of the existence of relic creatures.

Today, the Komodo dragon is kept in many zoos around the world, and everyone has the opportunity to be convinced of its incredible gluttony, watching how it indulges in gluttony. In this regard, it is noteworthy that the name "komodo" means "island of rats", but today there is not a single rat left on the rat island ...

DRAGONS OF KOMODO ISLAND

In fact, dragons are fantastic creatures. There is no such animal in nature, however, this is the name given to the giant monitor lizards that live today on the Indonesian island of Komodo and some other small nearby islets. The local population calls them "ora". It is believed that on all the islands where they live, there are somewhere around 5,000 of them.

Of course, giant monitor lizards are of great interest to tourists visiting Indonesia. It's one thing to look at a cute little nimble lizard and quite another to look at a giant one. To see this miracle of nature, thousands of tourists specially come to Komodo National Park. Accompanied by guides, they can see the legendary dragons.

Komodo Island is located in the Lesser Sunda Islands, and to get to it, you need to swim across the treacherous Seip Strait. Tourists are not allowed to walk around the park on their own. The reason for such strictness is simple: you can be eaten. In addition, the places where you can meet the dragon are known only to the park rangers.

Dragons are not to be trifled with. Their reputation is disgusting: they are not tameable and do not distinguish between man and deer - both are simply food for them. True, they say that when they are alone, the caretakers treat them rather familiarly: they caress them and sometimes even ride on horseback.

Perhaps monitor lizards used to feed on pygmy elephants when they were still found here. Now the objects of their hunting are buffaloes, deer, wild goats and pigs, who settled on the islands in a later period. But the reptiles themselves are not threatened by anyone, except for humans, of course, and ... brothers. Yes, cannibal dragons.

Today, Komodo dragons are endangered. Until 1993, 280 dragons were killed by humans. During the same time, the dragons killed and injured 12 people.

Local residents living in houses on stilts sometimes get into the teeth of monitor lizards waiting below. You can die from a minor bite. Dragon saliva is saturated with deadly poisonous bacteria, and most animals bitten by dragons, even if they manage to escape, quickly die from blood poisoning.

All types of animals related to "dragons" have always attracted the attention of man. Therefore, it is not surprising that on Komodo, 700 km away from the island of Borneo, a kind of show with the participation of dragons is arranged once every two weeks, which is attended by thousands of thrill-seekers.

The main attraction of the park on Komodo Island is dragon feeding. To look at this, tourists are located on an observation deck located on an elevated place above a dried-up river. Some consider monitor lizards to be ugly animals, but they are even beautiful in their own way. Their bumpy skin is somewhat reminiscent of chain mail. But the jaws of giant lizards are really terrible. They are filled with rows of sharp, serrated teeth between which a forked tongue glides.

The dragons slowly turn their heads, gazing at the curious bipeds with their unblinking black eyes. On days when the monitor lizards are not fed, their glances have such an effect on tourists that the number of people looking at them during feeding is significantly reduced. It gets kind of scary. Usually, in order not to injure curious sightseers, the goats are thrown to monitor lizards already killed. Clumsily crawling over each other, huge lizards rush to the carcass of a goat and fight for a piece of meat. There is no particular noise, except for the audible exhalations of reptiles, meaning a warning to the opponent: “Step back! It is mine!"

Monitor lizards are the only reptiles (except turtles) that, before eating their prey, tear it to pieces, holding it with powerful paws. Their teeth, 2 cm in size, are perfectly adapted for this purpose. Each tooth is like a curved scalpel with a dozen notches. Having sated, monitor lizards find a shadow for themselves and plunge into a drowsy state.

In the wild, usually living in isolation from each other, they sleep in thickets of bushes, under a tree, or dig holes for themselves. Adult animals have their own territories.

At short distances, monitor lizards can run very fast, catching up even with deer. However, when pursuing prey, adults get tired quite quickly and are forced to stop. Therefore, they prefer to wait for her in ambush, lying in tall grass or in a bush. Having noticed the prey, monitor lizards sneak up to it as close as possible, after which a sharp throw follows.

But with the sunset, the monitor lizard is unrecognizable. He falls into such a deep sleep that he becomes completely safe. At this time, you can touch it and even attach plastic tags to your fingers, measure body temperature.

Scientists say that it is almost impossible to distinguish between a female and a male. In general, information about the physiology and reproductive behavior of dragons is based only on assumptions. Scientists argued about their sex life for several decades, but it was not until 1986 that two Australian researchers finally solved this problem. They described in detail the process of courtship of a male for a female. United couples live together for a long time, but rarely - all their lives.

For a number of reasons, a tourist does not have the opportunity to observe the life of monitor lizards for a long time. The feeding of monitor lizards is the only thing he can see. Some scientists oppose such a spectacular event in Komodo National Park, believing that human feeding of monitor lizards can eventually affect their behavior in nature. However, something needs to attract tourists, even if not all of them can withstand this spectacle.

Are monitor lizards smart animals? Some scientists are still inclined to answer this question in the affirmative. Once, one of the ministers who accompanied a group of tourists on a day when monitor lizards are not fed, bleated with a goat. The monitor lizards immediately fixed their unblinking gaze on the source of the sound. But when the caretaker tried the same way to get their attention the next time, he failed. The monitor lizards did not even turn their heads, realizing that it was not a goat screaming.

Komodo dragons have long proven that it is always better to be careful with them.

PAPUAN DRAGON AND MEGALANIA PRISCA

Since the end of the 19th century and still today, many eyewitnesses from the eastern, Papuan, part of New Guinea, as well as from New South Wales and Queensland in Australia, describe huge, dragon-like creatures with an elongated body and a long, flat tail. They look like monitor lizards, but they are said to be about 8 m long. For comparison, let's say that the Komodo dragon, the largest lizard species in existence, is rarely longer than 3 m.

For many years, zoologists did not believe in these messages, but in 1980 a scientific expedition led by John Blashford-Snell caught a live Papuan dragon, called the "artrellia". It was still a very young specimen, only 1.87 m long. But it turned out that it belongs to a species that is already known to science - Varanus salvadorii.

By that time, it was already known that this species could reach a greater length than the Komodo dragon: the largest specimen described was a male 4.75 m long, which was discovered by explorer Michael Pope.

But he was not as powerful and strong as the Komodo monitor lizard, and therefore the latter is still considered the largest lizard in the world. However, now that the existence of artrellia has turned out to be a reality, eyewitness reports of giant Papua dragons can be confirmed.

Since it is not known whether this species exists in Australia itself, some zoologists find the dragons allegedly seen here to be similar to the giant Australian lizard Megalania prisca, which is considered extinct. Can it still exist?

Until now, the superficial resemblance between the enigmatic Australian dragon and Megalania has supported this notion, but today an examination of the skeletal remains has revealed that Megalania most likely has a prominent comb on its head. This feature was never mentioned by those who reported sightings of the giant lizard in Australia. Therefore, Megalania is still possibly a different kind of reptile.

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