Komodo Dragon

Komodo is actually the name of an island within the eastern part of Lesser Sunda chain of Islands (part East Nusa Tenggara province) in Indonesia. It lies among several small islands and neighboring two the substantially larger islands Sumbawa to the west and Flores to the east.  I think this is the island and it's story of discovery which inspired the story about King Kong.  Remember in the movie that they used a ship from Surabaya?  Surabaya is the name of a city in Indonesia.

The name Komodo is getting famous when first European in 1910 visited the island and came back with report of giant lizzards roaming the island. They named this enormous lizzard as Komodo Dragon, although later they realized that these dragons were also found among small islands near Komodo.  Actually, this giant lizzard is not extraordinary for the natives there, so they never made story about those lizzards, because they thought there's nothing special with this animal.  Most of these people are sailors or fishermen, they feed from the sea while these dragons feed from the land, so they both lived in relative harmony.



In 1980, government of Indonesia established Komodo National Park which consist of three major islands: Komodo, Rinca and Padar, as well as numerous smaller islands surrounding them creating a total surface area (marine and land) of 1817km (proposed extensions would bring the total surface area up to 2,321 sq km). As well as being home to the Komodo dragon, the Park provides refuge for many other notable terrestrial species such as the orange-footed scrub fowl, an endemic rat, and the Timor deer. Moreover, the Park includes one of the richest marine environments including coral reefs, mangroves, seagrass beds, seamounts, and semi-enclosed bays. These habitats harbor more than 1,000 species of fish, some 260 species of reef-building coral, and 70 species of sponges. Dugong, sharks, manta rays, at least 14 species of whales, dolphins, and sea turtles also make Komodo National Park their home. SInce 1986, the Park was declared a World Heritage Site and a Man and Biosphere Reserve by UNESCO.

As for the dragon itself, it's a member of the monitor lizard family (Varanidae), it is the largest living species of lizard, growing to an average length of 2 to 3 metres and weighing around 70 kilograms. Recent research suggests that the large size of komodo dragons can be understood as representative of a relic population of very large varanid lizards that once lived across Indonesia and Australia, most of which died out after contact with modern humans, along with other megafauna. Fossils very similar to V. komodoensis have been found in Australia dating to greater than 3.8 million years ago, and its body size remained stable on Flores, one of the handful of Indonesian islands where it is currently found, ever since Flores (along with neighboring islands) were isolated by rising sea levels approximately 900,000 years ago. As a result of their size, these lizards dominate the ecosystems in which they live. Although Komodo dragons eat mostly carrion, they will also hunt and ambush prey including invertebrates, birds, and mammals.

One very interesting fact of these giant lizzard is their parthenogenesis ability. A Komodo dragon at London Zoo named Sungai laid a clutch of eggs in late 2005 after being separated from male company 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. However, on December 20, 2006, it was reported that Flora, a captive Komodo dragon living in the Chester Zoo in England, was the second known Komodo dragon to have laid unfertilized eggs: she laid 11 eggs, and 7 of them hatched, all of them male. Scientists at Liverpool University in England performed genetic tests on three eggs that collapsed after being moved to an incubator, and verified that Flora had never been in physical contact with a male dragon. After Flora's eggs' condition had been discovered, testing showed that Sungai's eggs were also produced without outside fertilization. On January 31, 2008, the Sedgwick County Zoo in Wichita, Kansas became the first zoo in the Americas to document parthenogenesis in Komodo dragons. The zoo has two adult female Komodo dragons, one of which laid about 17 eggs on May 19–20, 2007. Only two eggs were incubated and hatched due to space issues; the first hatched on January 31, 2008 while the second hatched on February 1.  Both hatchlings were males.

From Papanidea