Do you know about the Komodo Dragons?

Komodo Dragons aren’t really “Dragons” they are a species of a lizard that
lives in the island of Komodo, Rinca, Flores, and Gili Motang in Indonesia.
They are a member of the monitor lizard family and it is the largest living
species of lizard. They grow to about 2~ 3 meters and weigh around 70 kg.
Female are shorter and lighter than male Komodo Dragons, they have a life
span up to 30 years in the wild. They mostly eat carrion which is an animal
that is an important food source to the carnivores like Komodo Dragons.
They also eat invertebrates (animal without
skeletal structure), birds and other mammals
such as pigs, small deer, and water buffalos.
The Komodo dragon is known for eating as
much as their body weight of food, they can
survive weeks without eating anything. Even
for their size they are fast, they can crawl up
to a speed of 20mph. Komodo Dragons had
been around the earth for 40 million years or
more, which makes them one of the oldest
animals that have been on earth.

Interesting Facts:
Did you know Komodo dragons saliva contains 50 different types of bacteria
and 7 of them are fatal!

Why are Komodo dragons endangered? There are

several reasons, the largest threat to the Komodo
dragons is the volcanic activity, earthquakes, and
wild fire. Lots of the population of Komodo
dragons had been reduced of a wildfire and the
volcanic activities kills the lizard’s prey (food),
also causing death to the dragons.

How are humans endangering the komodo

dragons? Villagers that live close to the komodo
dragons are reducing the population by poisoning
one of their main food carrion and then throwing
them into the wild where Komodo dragons feed
on them, which will kill the carrion and the
Komodo dragon that eats it. Also they are
endangered because of the tourisms that
is happening in the island where the
Komodo dragons live in, they illegally
poach these Komodo dragon and using
them for trading their skins or
specimens.

How endangered are the Komodo

dragons? Komodo dragons are
endangered enough to get in the IUCN
red list (International Union for the Conservation of Nature and Natural
Resou rces). This is a series of red list that is produced by countries or
organizations, which shows the risks of extinctions of species such as
animals, or plants.

What would happen if the Komodo dragons go extinct…? If Komodo

dragons goes extinct, it will be one of the tragic event that will happened in
the island of Komodo, Rinca, Flores and Gili Motang in Indonesia. Komodo
dragons are top of the food chains so if they go extinct the food chain will
collapse causing a bigger population of its prey such as pigs, deer, water
buffalo which will eventually eat all plant life, which will expose the land to
erosion, soon the land will be degraded and cannot be used again for a long
time.

Now humans have figured out this is an issue so we found a

Komodo National Park on island including Komodo, Rinca,
and Padar to protect the Komodo dragons population. Also
and biologist Tim Flannery has suggested Australian’s
ecosystems will benefit from Komodo dragons (if we move
them there) that it will replace the large carnivore of
Australia.