How the monitor lizard hunts. The Komodo dragon is the largest living lizard. coexistence with man

Varanus komodoensis Ouwens,

Lifestyle

Komodo dragons lead a solitary lifestyle, uniting in non-permanent groups during feeding and during the breeding season.

The Komodo dragon prefers dry, sunny areas and tends to live in arid plains, savannas, and dry areas. tropical forests, at low altitude. In the hot season (May-October) it adheres to dry riverbeds with jungle-covered banks. Often comes ashore in search of carrion washed ashore. willingly enters sea ​​water, swims well and can even swim across to a neighboring island, overcoming a considerable distance.

When running over short distances, the monitor lizard is able to reach speeds of up to 20 km / h. To get food at a height (for example, on a tree), it can stand on its hind legs, using its tail as a support. Young animals climb well and spend a lot of time in trees.

Monitor lizards use burrows 1-5 m long as shelters, which they dig with the help of strong paws with long, curved and sharp claws. Hollow trees serve as a refuge for young monitor lizards.

In the wild, adults do not natural enemies. Young monitor lizards are eaten by snakes, civets and birds of prey.

The natural lifespan of monitor lizards in nature is probably around 50 years. In captivity, no cases have been noted so far that the Komodo monitor lizard has lived for more than 25 years.

Nutrition

Young Komodo dragon near the carcass of an Asian water buffalo

Monitor lizards feed on a wide variety of animals - both vertebrates and invertebrates. They may eat insects (mainly orthoptera), crabs, fish, sea turtles, lizards, snakes, birds, mice and rats, civets, deer, wild boars, feral dogs, goats, buffalo and horses.

Cannibalism is common among Komodo monitor lizards, especially in famine years: adults often eat young and smaller monitor lizards.

On the islands inhabited by Komodo monitors, there are no predators larger than them, so adult monitor lizards are at the top of the food chain. They hunt relatively large prey from an ambush, sometimes knocking the victim down with blows of a powerful tail, often breaking the legs of the victim. Large adult Komodo dragons feed mainly on carrion, but they often take this carrion. in an unusual way. So, having tracked down a deer, a wild boar or a buffalo in the bushes, the monitor lizard attacks and seeks to inflict a lacerated wound on the animal, into which poison and many bacteria from the monitor lizard's oral cavity are introduced. Even the largest male monitor lizards do not have enough strength to immediately overcome a large ungulate animal, but as a result of such an attack, the victim’s wound becomes inflamed, blood poisoning occurs, the animal gradually weakens and dies after a while. The monitor lizards are left only to follow the victim until she dies. The time for which it dies varies depending on its size. In buffalo, death occurs after 3 weeks. Monitor lizards have a good sense of smell and locate corpses by smell using a long forked tongue. Monitor lizards come from all over the island to the smell of carrion. Fights between males are frequent in feeding grounds to establish and maintain a hierarchical order (usually non-fatal, although scars and traces of wounds are noticeable).

The Komodo dragon can swallow very large prey or large pieces of food, which is facilitated by the movable connection of the bones of the lower jaw and a capacious, expandable stomach.

Females and juveniles prey on smaller animals. Cubs can even stand up on their hind legs to reach small animals that are too high for adult relatives.

Currently, due to a sharp decline in the number of large wild ungulates on the islands due to poaching, even adult male monitor lizards are forced to switch to smaller prey. Because of this the average size monitor lizards is gradually decreasing and now is about 75% of the average size of a sexually mature individual 10 years ago. Hunger sometimes causes the death of monitor lizards.

reproduction

Animals of this species reach puberty approximately at the tenth year of life, to which only a small part of the born monitor lizards survive. The sex ratio in the population is approximately 3.4:1 in favor of males. Possibly, this is a mechanism for regulating the abundance of the species in the conditions of insular habitation. Since the number of females is much less than the number of males, during the breeding season, ritual fights take place between males for the female. At the same time, monitor lizards stand on their hind legs and, clasping their opponent's front limbs, try to knock him down. In such battles, mature hardened individuals usually win, young and very old males retreat. The victorious male presses the opponent to the ground and scratches him with his claws for a while, after which the loser moves away.

males komodo dragon much larger and more powerful than females. During mating, the male twitches his head, rubs his lower jaw against her neck and scratches the back and tail of the female with his claws.

Mating occurs in winter, during the dry season. After mating, the female is looking for a place to lay eggs. They are often nests of weed chickens erecting compost heaps - natural incubators from fallen leaves for thermoregulation of the development of their eggs. Having found a pile, the female monitor lizard digs a deep hole in it, and often several, in order to divert the attention of wild boars and other predators that eat eggs. Egg laying occurs in July-August, the average size of a Komodo dragon clutch is about 20 eggs. Eggs reach a length of 10 cm and a diameter of 6 cm, weigh up to 200 g. The female guards the nest for 8-8.5 months until the cubs hatch. Young lizards appear in April-May. Having been born, they leave their mother and immediately climb the neighboring trees. To avoid potentially dangerous encounters with adult monitor lizards, young monitor lizards spend the first two years of their lives in the crowns of trees, where they are inaccessible to adults.

Parthenogenesis has been found in Komodo dragons. In the absence of males, the female can lay unfertilized eggs, which was observed in the Chester and London zoos in England. Since male monitor lizards have two identical chromosomes, and females, on the contrary, differ, and at the same time a combination of identical ones is viable, all cubs will be male. Each egg that is laid contains either a W or a Z chromosome (in Komodo dragons, ZZ is male and WZ is female), then gene duplication occurs. The resulting diploid cells with two W chromosomes die, and those with two Z chromosomes develop into new lizards. The ability for sexual and asexual reproduction in these reptiles is probably associated with the isolation of the habitat - this allows them to establish new colonies if, as a result of a storm, females without males are thrown onto neighboring islands.

I

It has traditionally been believed that the effects of Komodo dragon bites (severe inflammation at the site of the bite, sepsis, etc.) are caused by bacteria living in the monitor's mouth. Auffenberg pointed to the presence of pathogenic microflora in the saliva of the Komodo dragon, including Escherichia coli, Staphylococcus sp., Providencia sp., Proteus morgani and Proteus mirabilis. It has been suggested that bacteria enter the body of lizards when feeding on carrion, as well as when feeding jointly from other monitor lizards. But in oral samples taken from fresh-eating zoo monitors, researchers at the University of Texas found 57 different strains of bacteria found in wild monitors, including Pasteurella multocida. Besides, Pasteurella multocida from monitor lizard saliva showed much more intensive growth on nutrient media than obtained from other sources.

However, recently Australian scientists working with related species monitor lizards, found that at least some species of monitor lizards are themselves poisonous. In late 2005, a group of scientists from the University of Melbourne suggested that big monitor lizard (Varanus giganteus), other species of monitor lizards, as well as dragons, may have toxic saliva, and that the effects of the bites of these lizards were caused by mild intoxication. Studies have shown the toxic effects of the saliva of several species of monitor lizards (particularly the spotted monitor lizard ( Varanus varius) and Varanus scalaris), as well as some agama lizards - in particular, the bearded agama ( Pogona barbata). Before this study, there were conflicting data on the toxic effects of the saliva of some monitor lizards, for example, gray monitor lizard (Varanus griseus).

In 2009, the same researchers published further evidence that Komodo dragons possess venomous bite. An MRI scan showed two venom glands in the lower jaw. They removed one of these glands from a terminally ill monitor lizard at the Singapore Zoo and found that it secretes a venom containing various toxic proteins. The functions of these proteins include inhibition of blood clotting, reduction blood pressure, muscle paralysis and the development of hypothermia, leading to shock and loss of consciousness in the bitten victim.

Some scientists have proposed a hypothetical non-ranking group to unite snakes, monitor lizards, gila-tooths, fusiformes and iguanas. Toxicofera. The association is based on the presence of toxic components in saliva and assumes that all "poisonous" groups have one ancestor (which is not indisputable).

The poisonous gland of monitor lizards is more primitive than that of poisonous snakes. The gland is located in the lower jaw directly below the salivary glands, its ducts open at the base of the teeth, and do not exit through special channels in poisonous teeth, like in snakes. In the oral cavity, poison and saliva mix with decaying food, forming a mixture in which many different bacteria multiply.

Human danger

Komodo monitor lizards 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. Nevertheless, there are several cases of monitor lizards attacking people, when monitor lizards mistook a person for food familiar to a monitor lizard (carrion, birds, etc.) due to some smell. Komodo dragon bites are extremely dangerous. After a bite, you should immediately consult a doctor. The number of deaths due to untimely medical care (and, as a result, blood poisoning) reaches 99%. Children are especially vulnerable. Monitor lizards may well kill a child under 10 years old or cause severe injury. There are documented cases of children dying from monitor lizard attacks. There are few human settlements on the islands, but they exist and their population is growing rapidly (800 people according to 2008 data). As a rule, these are poor, fishing villages. In famine years, especially in drought, monitor lizards come close to settlements. They are especially attracted by the smell of human excrement, fish, etc. Cases of monitor lizards digging up human corpses from shallow graves are well known. AT recent times However, Indonesian Muslims living on the islands bury the dead, covering them with dense cast cement slabs, inaccessible to monitor lizards. Rangers usually capture individuals and move them to other areas of the island. Killing monitor lizards is prohibited by law.

Since adult monitor lizards have a very good sense of smell, they can locate the source of the smell of blood up to 5 km away. Several cases have been documented of Komodo dragons attempting to attack tourists with minor open wounds or scratches. A similar danger threatens women who visit the islands of habitat of Komodo monitor lizards, while in the menstrual cycle. Tourists are usually warned of the potential danger by rangers; all groups of tourists are usually accompanied by rangers, armed with long poles with a forked end to protect themselves from possible attacks.

Komodo dragon on Indonesian coin

conservation status

The Komodo dragon is a narrow-range species that is endangered due to economic activity person. Listed in the IUCN Red List and Appendix I of the CITES Convention on International Trade in Species. In 1980, to protect the species from extinction, Komodo National Park was organized, which now regularly organizes sightseeing, ecological and adventure tours.

see also

Notes

1. Ananyeva N. B., Borkin L. Ya., Darevsky I. S., Orlov N. L. Five-language dictionary of animal names. Amphibians and reptiles. Latin, Russian, English, German, French. / under the general editorship of acad. V. E. Sokolova. - M .: Rus. yaz., 1988. - S. 269. - 10,500 copies. - ISBN 5-200-00232-X
2. A. G. Bannikov , I. S. Darevsky , M. N. Denisova Life of animals. Amphibians. Reptiles / ed. V. E. Sokolova. - 2nd ed. - M .: Education, 1985. - V. 5. - S. 245. - 300,000 copies.
3. Ciofi, Claudia The Komodo Dragon (English) . Scientific American (March 1999). archived
4. Dragon's Paradise Lost: Palaeobiogeography, Evolution and Extinction of the Largest-Ever Terrestrial Lizards (Varanidae) (English) . plosone. Archived from the original on February 21, 2012. Retrieved March 6, 2011.
5. Monitor lizards of Komodo Island have been found to be poisonous. living water. Archived from the original on February 21, 2012. Retrieved March 6, 2011.
6. BBC life. Reptiles and Amphibians. seasonvar (2009). Archived from the original on August 25, 2011. Retrieved March 6, 2011.

komodo dragon(also called Komodo dragon, giant Indonesian monitor lizard) is the largest reptile in the world, as well as one of the most effective "killers" in the animal kingdom. These largest lizards is Australia, but the name was attached to them because of the island of Komodo, where they were probably first discovered, now about 1600 individuals live there. Also, these animals have been seen on nearby islands from Komodo Island. These Indonesian islands include: Gili Motang Island, Flores Island, Rinca Island. The total number of Komodo monitor lizards is approximately 5000 individuals.

Physical description of the Komodo dragon
Komodo dragons have long tails, strong and agile necks, and strong limbs. Adult Komodo dragons are almost stone in color. Growing monitor lizards may have more bright colors. Their tongues are yellow and forked, befitting their draconian name.

The muscles of the jaws and throat of the monitor lizard allow him to swallow huge pieces of meat with amazing speed. Several movable joints, such as the intramandibular loop, allow the mandible to be opened unusually wide. The stomach expands easily, allowing adults to consume up to 80 percent of their body weight in a single meal, which likely explains some of the exaggerated claims for the enormous weight of the ingested creature. When a Komodo dragon feels threatened, it may empty its stomach contents to reduce its weight and escape.

Although males tend to grow larger and more massive than females, there are no obvious morphological differences between the sexes. However, there is indeed one slight difference: a slight difference in weight distribution only in the anterior part of the cloaca. Mating Komodo dragons remains a problem for researchers, as the dragons themselves seem to have some trouble figuring out who is who.

Dimensions
The Komodo dragon is the largest living lizard on Earth. Some recorded specimens reached a length of 3.13 meters (10.3 ft) and weighed 166 kg (366 lb). The largest wild Komodo monitors typically weigh around 70 kg (154 lb).

Habitat
The habitat of Komodo dragons is limited to a few Indonesian islands, the Lesser Sunda Islands, which include Rinca, Padar and Flores, and of course Komodo Island. They live in the forests of the tropical savannah, but are widely found on the islands, from the beach to the tops of the mountains.

Food habits
Their eyes can see objects very far, as far as 300 meters (985 feet), so vision really plays important role in their hunting, especially since their eyes are more focused on movement than on various stationary objects. Their retina contains only cones, so they are able to see colors, but have poor eyesight in dim light. They have a much smaller auditory range than humans. As a result, the animal cannot hear sounds such as a low-pitched voice and a high-pitched screech.

Sight and hearing are useful, but for the Komodo dragon, smell is its main food detector. The lizard feels the same way as the snake does. He uses his long yellow forked tongue to sample the air, after which he sticks the two tips of the tongue into the roof of the mouth, where they come into contact with Jacobson's organ. Chemical "smell" analyzers recognize the molecules present in the air. If there is a higher concentration on the left side of the tongue tip than on the right side, the Komodo dragon knows that prey is approaching from the left. This system, along with a swaying gait where the head swings from side to side, helps the monitor to sense the presence and direction of scented carrion, up to 4 km (2.5 miles) away, when there is wind.

When the Komodo dragon hunts and catches its prey, such as deer, it attacks the legs first, throwing the deer off balance. When dealing with smaller prey, it can pounce right on the neck. The basic strategy of the monitor lizard is simple: try to lay the prey on the ground and tear it to pieces. Strong muscles and powerful claws help him in this, but the Komodo dragon's teeth are his most dangerous weapon. They are large, curved and jagged, and are capable of tearing flesh with high efficiency. If the deer cannot immediately escape, the Komodo dragon will continue to tear it apart. After making sure that its prey is incapacitated, the monitor lizard can stop its attack for a short rest. At this time, the deer will be seriously injured and in shock. Then the lizard delivers the final blow, an attack on the stomach. The deer quickly bleeds out and dies, the Komodo dragon begins to eat it.

Bits of meat, either fresh prey or carrion, are stuck in the notches of his teeth from the last meal. This protein-rich residue keeps a large number of bacteria alive. About 50 different bacterial strains have been found, at least seven of which are septic-like. If the victim somehow escapes and escapes his death upon first encounter, there is a chance that his escape will be short-lived. Infections transmitted by the bite of a Komodo monitor lizard will kill the victim in less than a week. In addition to bacteria in their saliva, researchers have recently documented that Komodo dragons do indeed have venom glands in their lower jaws. Apart from being harmed by the bacteria present in their saliva, their venom prevents the blood from clotting.

Video. How do Komodo dragons hunt?

The bite of a monitor lizard is not fatal to other Komodo dragons. It is believed that monitor lizards wounded by their comrades in battle are not affected by deadly bacteria and poison. Scientists are looking for antibodies in the blood of Komodo monitor lizards that could help keep an infected victim alive.

Large carnivorous mammals such as lions typically leave 25 to 30 percent of a carcass uneaten: gut contents, skinned skeleton and hooves. Komodo dragons eat much more efficiently, leaving only about 12 percent of the prey. They eat bones, hooves and even hide. They also eat the intestines, but only after they have vigorously torn them open to gut the contents.

Komodo dragons eat almost any kind of meat. They burrow through rotten carcasses and prey on animals ranging in size from small rodents to large buffaloes. Juveniles mainly feed on small lizards, geckos and insects. They are tertiary predators (predator at the top the food chain) and cannibals. They can detect carrion from a considerable distance, about 4 km (2.5 mi), and actively search for it. When hunting, the Komodo dragon is near the trails, where it waits for a deer or wild boar to pass by. It then attacks the prey, most attempts fail, causing the animal to escape. However, if the monitor lizard manages to bite the prey, the toxic bacteria and venom in the saliva will kill the prey in the next few days. After the victim dies, it can take up to four days for the animal to find the dead body using its powerful sense of smell. As a rule, after the murder, many Komodo monitor lizards resort to a feast and very little remains of the carcass of the killed animal.

At the Smithsonian National Zoological Park, Komodo dragons are fed weekly with rodents, chickens and rabbits. From time to time they get fish.

social structure
Since the large Komodo dragons eat the young, the young often spill out in their feces, thereby dampening the smells so that the larger monitors cannot smell them.

Reproduction and development
Most mating occurs from May to August. In a group gathered around carrion, there is an opportunity for courtship. Dominant males may be drawn into ritual fights in search of females. Using their tails for support, they wrestle in an upright position, grabbing each other with their front legs, with which they try to throw the opponent to the ground. Blood, as a rule, changes everything and the one who let it out either continues to fight, or remains submissive and motionless.

The female Komodo dragon lays about 30 eggs. Delaying styling can help avoid the dry season's brutal hot months. In addition, unfertilized eggs may be given a second chance at subsequent mating. The female lays her eggs in dug holes in mountain slopes or in the nests of bigfoots, chicken-like birds that make nests of earth mixed with twigs that can be up to 1 meter (3 ft) high and 3 meters (10 ft) wide. During the maturation of eggs (about nine months), females can lie on the nests, protecting their future offspring. There is no evidence, but the parents of the hatched Komodo monitor lizards do not participate in their care in any way.

Cubs weigh less than 100 g (3.5 oz) and average 40 centimeters (16 in) in length. Their first years are full of danger and they often fall prey to predators, including their fellows. They feed on a varied diet of insects, small lizards, snakes and birds. If they reach the age of five, they can weigh 25 kg (55 lb) and be up to 2 meters (6.5 ft) long. By this time, they are moving on to larger prey such as rodents, monkeys, goats, wild boars, and the Komodo dragon's most popular food, deer. Slow growth continues throughout their life, which can last over 30 years.

Rest habits
They escape the heat during the day and seek shelter at night in burrows that are slightly larger than they are.

Lifespan
In the wild, Komodo dragons live for about 30 years, but scientists are still studying this.

The study that established how the Komodo dragon kills its prey

Researchers at the University of Melbourne in Australia have found that the secret to predatory success lies in its amazing poison.

Until now, it was believed that the bite of the Komodo monster is contagious due to some bacteria contained in its mouth. Due to the lightning-fast microbial attack spreading throughout the body of the victim, the bitten animal soon died and the monitor lizard could only wait and find the victim by its smell. Having waited for the death of the animal or the moment when it was greatly weakened and could not defend itself, the monitor lizard proceeded to the meal.

But Brian Fry and his team disproved this hypothesis, discovering venom glands in the animal's skull causing severe paralysis in those bitten by the reptile. After studying the poison, scientists found that it dilates blood vessels and prevents blood from clotting, causing the victim to "shock". The bite of the Komodo monster is much weaker than that of a crocodile, but their prey soon dies due to blood loss caused by a deadly powerful poison that prevents blood from clotting.

Fry also studied the fossils of an extinct giant monitor lizard known as Megalania (Varanus prisca) to find out if this species had venom glands. Their results, published in March 2009 in the American journal PNAS (Eng. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Rus. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences), showed that this lizard, reaching a length of seven meters, was one of the largest poisonous animals, that existed on earth.

Photo portrait of Komodo dragon

Mouth of Komodo dragon

Varan next to his victim

Latest Known Cases of Komodo Dragon Attacks on Humans
In 2007, an eight-year-old boy was killed by a Komodo dragon, the first recorded fatal attack over the past 30 years. The attack happened in March during the dry season, so keepers speculate that the lizard may have been especially hungry given that the pools have dried up and the prey that gathers there has stopped coming to them. The boy was attacked by a Komodo dragon as he went into the bushes to urinate, local media reported.

The boy's uncle came running and started throwing stones at the lizard until it released his nephew. Anyway, the boy died from heavy bleeding from his torso, his uncle described that the boy had two bites.

In 2008, three Britons, Kathleen Mitchinson, Charlotte Allyn and James Manning, were forced to throw rocks to ward off Komodo dragons when they ran aground on the uninhabited island of Rinca in eastern Indonesia. They managed to induce fear in animals. But Anwar was not so lucky.

In 2008, a group of scuba divers on a boat, due to the strong Flores Current, were pushed far from their original dive point. After spending 10 hours spinning at high tide, around midnight the group made it to a beach on what appeared to be a deserted island about 25 miles from where their ordeal had begun. However, their troubles didn't end there. They ended up on Rinca Island, where it is estimated that there are about 1,300 Komodo monitor lizards.

The attacks began almost immediately. The merciless lizard repeatedly attacked the Swede, biting the diver's belt. She chewed on her belt while other divers threw rocks at her head. For two days and nights, the injured divers battled the monitor lizards and the tropical heat, scraping the preserved shellfish off the rocks and eating them raw. Finally, the Indonesian rescue crew spotted a spotted orange divers' emergency buoy placed on the rocks. Although the group of divers were shocked and recuperated at a local hospital on the island of Flores, they still celebrated their survival in a city bar.

In March 2009, police sergeant Cosmas Jalang reported that on Komodo Island, 31-year-old apple picker Muhamad Anwar received "terrible injuries". "He was working on a tree when he slipped and fell," Sergeant Jalang said. He was immobilized, lay on the ground for a short time, and then two monitor lizards attacked him. "They are opportunistic predators and he didn't stand a chance."

Miss Theresia Tava, who worked nearby and filmed the shock after seeing the attack, said: “He was bleeding all over his body. When he fell, scarcely a minute had passed before the monitor lizards were on him. They just bit and bit and bit, it was terrible. They bit his arms, torso, legs and neck.”

A speedboat took Anwar to the nearby island of Flores, but the doctors at the clinic on Flores Island were unable to save Anwar's life.

Attacks on humans by Komodo dragons, which number fewer than 4,000 in the wild, are extremely rare, but keepers say the number of such incidents appears to have increased in recent years.

In 2017, in Thailand, giant monitor lizards almost ate the body of a tourist. In late April, an investigation was launched into the death of 30-year-old Belgian tourist Elisa Dallemange, whose remains were discovered on Koh Tao on April 28. The police told the relatives of the deceased that she had committed suicide, but Eliza's family did not believe it.

The girl's body was so badly torn apart by giant monitor lizards (not Komodo monitors, giant monitors are the third largest after Komodo and striped monitors) that it could only be identified with the help of a dental examination. The girl's parents reported that recent months she often traveled the world, practiced meditation and studied yoga. The last time (April 17), when the Belgian contacted her relatives via Skype a few days before her death, the girl was in high spirits, she said that she was very happy to exist in unity with nature on the “paradise island”.

Her mother said: “Too many things show us that someone is involved. The police told us that Elise hanged herself in the jungle. I cannot accept that my daughter killed herself." Perhaps Eliza's parents' suspicions may make sense, since no suicide note was found near the girl's body. Journalists believe that the Thai police will not reveal the true cause of death of a foreigner, so as not to scare away tourists. From 2014 to 2017, seven people died on Koh Tao. All of them became victims of lizards, which can reach three meters in length. Their bite is toxic and often fatal.

Below is a case where a monitor lizard attacked a girl. It was not a Komodo monitor lizard, this emphasizes the fact that even a less intimidating monitor lizard is capable of inflicting wounds on a person.

Goanna grabbed the leg of an 8-year-old girl
On January 24, 2019, a young girl was rushed to the hospital after she was bitten by a huge goanna on a beach in Queensland. An eight-year-old girl was left with a 'frightening' gash on her leg after it took two people to free her from a lizard's jaws at a campsite on the island of South Stradbroke.

A photo. Snake catcher Tony Harrison with a goanna who attacked an 8-year-old girl

"It was a very disturbing incident," Queensland Ambulance Chief Inspector Janey Shearman told reporters. “While walking around the campsite, she was attacked by a goanna, which made a rather nasty cut. It was quite difficult to remove the goanna from the child, and it took a couple of people to remove it from the leg.

When the girl was taken to Gold Coast University Hospital to be treated for a gash in her leg, Shearman described the attack as "wild".

Experts say goanna bites can be dangerous because carnivores feed on carrion, and toxic bacteria in the mouth can cause the pain, swelling, and prolonged bleeding caused by the bites.

Below you can see a documentary film about the investigation of attacks by Komodo dragons on people called: "In the mouth of the dragon." The film investigates a case in which a Komodo monitor lizard attacked a boy named Mansoor on Komodo Island. It was only thanks to his uncle Jafar's quick reaction that the Komodo dragon abandoned its prey and disappeared from view, but the worst was yet to come. The boy died from blood loss in just 30 minutes. The film also mentions a case that happened in 1974 with the famous German hunter, Baron Rudolf von Reding, who was eaten by a Komodo dragon during a walk. And also there is a story of the head of the pier, Yvon Pariman, who was attacked by a monitor lizard when he lay down to rest on a bed with socks in his house (a Komodo dragon grabbed his leg with socks). Yvon was lucky, despite his wounds and fever, he survived.

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".

Of course, you already guessed what we are talking about now ...

According to local residents, the length of some monsters reaches seven meters, and three- and four-meter buya-darats are common. Curator of the Butsnzorg Zoological Museum botanical park In the province of West Java, Peter Owen immediately entered into correspondence with the manager of the island 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. 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 in the Bulletin botanical garden an article about the existence of a new species of reptile, naming an animal previously unknown to the spider 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 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.

First World War forced to stop research, and only after 12 years, interest in the Komodo monitor resumed. Now, US zoologists have become the main researchers of the giant reptile. On the English language This reptile became known as the Komodo 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.

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 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.

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 up 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.

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 hide it and grab it when it comes close by itself. close quarters.

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. wild boars, they can knock down 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.

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.

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

Moreover, according to Fry, the Komodo dragon is a very clean animal.

Komodo dragons inhabiting the islands of Indonesia are the most large predators on these islands. They prey on pigs, deer and Asiatic buffalo. 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, having been attacked by a monitor lizard, always, despite deep wounds, leaves the predator alive. Following its instinct, a bitten buffalo usually seeks refuge in a warm body of water teeming with anaerobic bacteria and eventually succumbs to the infection that enters its legs through the wounds.

Pathogenic bacteria found in the oral cavity of Komodo dragons in previous studies, according to Fry, are traces of infections that enter his body from contaminated 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 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.

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 tuberous 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.

Paleontologists believe that 5-10 million years ago the ancestors of the Komodo dragon appeared in Australia. This assumption is well aligned 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 mainland. 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 at the end of it there will still be open known to people animals, although not as dangerous as Komodo dragons, but certainly no less amazing!

The Komodo monitor lizard is the largest living reptile animal belonging to the Scaly order and directly related to the Varanov family.

A lizard of this species can reach more than three meters in length, can you imagine a reptile longer than an ordinary small car? To be honest, it is somehow difficult for us :-).

The world first learned about them in 1912, and before that time locals, adjacent to the island of Komodo, where these huge lizards currently live, called them - terrestrial.

The sharp claws on its powerful paws and elastic 1.5 tail makes the victim tremble at the mere sight of this ruthless and ferocious predator.

Unlike its giant counterpart, the Komodo lizard is much larger, stronger and more cunning. The females of this species are slightly smaller than the males. The length of an adult male can reach up to 3 meters, but these are rare specimens, usually the average size is no more than 2.6 meters.

The weight of an average male does not exceed 95 kg, the weight of a female is 78 kg. The largest male with a body length of up to three meters can weigh up to 147 kg, but you need to take into account the fact that he could have a good lunch before weighing, respectively, the real weight will be when we subtract 17-20 kg from the total mass.

The body color of the island giant is dark rusty with amber spots interspersed with specks. Young animals are slightly lighter in color, with reddish-orange spots on their backbone, they reluctantly merge into thin stripes on the neck and tail.

On the front and back edges of his teeth, which are laterally compressed, have serrated and cutting edges. This form of teeth helps him pull out large pieces of meat from a dead carcass.

The long forked tongue plays the most important role in finding food. He is able to recognize the smell of a potential victim at a distance of more than 9.5 kilometers..

Its four limbs are well developed, moreover, they are equipped with curved claws about 10 cm long, capable of inflicting mortal wounds even on such a formidable animal as.

This species of reptile lives only on the Indonesian islands. Let's get a little specific and call all the islands by their names:

• Gili Mota;
• Komodo;
• Rinja;
• Flores;
• Padar;
• Owadi Sami;

Some islands are located close to northern Australia. Scientists have suggested that this species of lizards previously lived in Australia, then, for unknown reasons, migrated to the aforementioned neighboring islands about 900 years ago.

All islands inhabited by this species of reptiles have a mountainous and rocky structure, and there is also a slight tropical jungle with a cultural landscape.

The Komodo dragon leads a solitary lifestyle, prefers to sleep at night, finding a dill, dry and warm place for itself, and in the morning when the warm rays heat up its body to desired temperature he goes fishing.

An undisturbed animal moves slowly, raising its head slightly up, and the tail is in an elevated state. If you try to catch him, he immediately becomes aggressive, inflicting numerous blows with his powerful tail section, trying to knock down the enemy.

He is an excellent sprinter and can compete short distances with . It can also easily catch up with a running person. The speed during the pursuit of prey can reach up to 23 km / h. On the top speed he can move for a short time, so he prefers to guard the prey in ambush and attack it at the most convenient moment for him.

Juveniles spend a lot of time in trees. It is difficult for adult lizards to climb a tree because of their huge body weight, but if you need to catch prey, then it this can be helped by his tail, on which he operates during climbing.

After a meal, young animals spend time in trees and in tree hollows, while adults and old animals give their preference to rocky crevices or wet pits in the rainforest.

Nutrition

The diet of this animal is quite diverse, it does not disdain carrion. The daily menu of an adult animal includes:

• deer;
• Birds;

Young individuals to the above diet can still eat, and small birds.

Hunting

We have already mentioned in passing the fact that adults run fast, but only for short distances, young animals, due to their low weight, are much more enduring and faster.

For hunting, this species has developed a special tactic that allows you to get a wonderful dinner for a minimum energy consumption. Having approached the prey as close as possible, he freezes and waits for the victim to approach him.

Then he makes a throw at the victim and knocks him to the ground with his powerful jaws. Having fixed the animal with his teeth and paws, shaking his head in different directions, he tears off large pieces of meat and immediately swallows them. It is curious, but after the animal is sated, it licks the rest of the carcass with its bloody tongue. Probably, it is this behavior of the animal that is associated with stories about the "fire-breathing dragon."

The mating season for monitor lizards begins at the end of June. During this period, fierce fights occur between males, during which they can cripple an opponent up to lethal outcome. This is justified, because the better the territory of the male, the greater the likelihood that the female will go to him.

A fertilized female at the end of July lays more than 30 eggs in the ground, and then carefully buries them for more than 8 months. The rest of the work will be done by the sun, its rays heat earth's surface to the desired temperature. After eight months, small lizards no longer than 27-30 cm long hatch. Having got out, tiny lizards become vulnerable, because they can safely dine:

• And even large individuals of a related species;

Young animals are quite shy, the slightest rustle makes them hide under stones and in trees. After surviving a three-year period, his body length is more than one meter in length, and he no longer has to be so shy. By the age of five, the length of his body doubles and he is ready to mate.

Currently, this taxon is not threatened. Suppose this is due to the fact that people do not live on the islands. The approximate number of living monitor lizards on all the islands taken together reaches more than 5100 individuals..

On uninhabited islands, monitor lizard lives from 24 to 37 years.

1. The largest Komodo dragon lived in the St. Louis Zoo, its length was more than 3 meters and 15 cm, and its weight reached 167 kg.
2. One adult pangolin can eat a large deer alone, but after that it takes a whole week to digest it.
3. The appearance of the egg of this pangolin resembles a goose, but it is covered with a leathery surface.
4. The length of the tail of this predator is exactly half of its total length.
5. If several monitor lizards gather at the prey, then a complete hierarchy reigns among them.

The Komodo monitor lizard (giant Indonesian monitor lizard, Komodo dragon) (lat. Varanus komodoensis) is the largest in the world. predatory reptile belongs to the order of scaly, the superfamily of monitor lizards, the family of monitor lizards, the genus of monitor lizards. The Komodo monitor lizard, which is also called the "dragon of Komodo Island", got its name from one of its habitats.

Seasoned and strong monitor lizards easily cope with more impressive prey: wild boars, buffaloes, and goats. Often, livestock gets into the teeth of adult Komodo monitor lizards, and those who came to water bodies for a watering place or accidentally met on the way of this dangerous lizard. Monitor lizard from Komodo Island is also dangerous for humans, there are known cases of these predators attacking people. If there is not enough food large monitor lizards may attack smaller relatives. When eating food, the Komodo dragon can swallow very large pieces due to the movable connection of the bones of the lower jaw and a capacious stomach, which tends to stretch.

Komodo dragon hunting.

The principle of hunting the Komodo monitor lizard is quite cruel. Sometimes a large predatory lizard attacks its prey from an ambush, suddenly knocking down its “future dinner” with a powerful and sharp blow of the tail. At the same time, the impact force is so great that often potential prey gets leg fractures. 12 out of 17 deer die on the spot in a fight with a lizard. However, sometimes the victim manages to escape, though she can get severe injuries in the form of torn tendons or lacerations in the abdomen or neck area, which leads to inevitable death. The poison of the monitor lizard and the bacteria that are contained in the saliva of the reptile weaken the victim. In large prey, such as a buffalo, death can occur only 3 weeks after a fight with a monitor lizard. Some sources indicate that the giant Komodo monitor lizard will catch up with its prey by the smell and traces of blood to the point of complete exhaustion. Some animals manage to escape and heal their wounds, other animals fall into the clutches of predators, and others die from wounds inflicted by monitor lizard. An excellent sense of smell allows the Komodo dragon to smell food and the smell of blood at a distance of up to 9.5 km. And when the victim still dies, monitor lizards run to the smell of carrion to eat the dead animal.

Komodo dragon venom.

Previously, it was believed that the saliva of the Komodo monitor lizard contains only a harmful "cocktail" of pathogenic bacteria, to which the predatory lizard is immune. However, relatively recently, scientists have determined that the monitor lizard has a pair of poisonous glands located on the lower jaw and producing special toxic proteins that cause a bitten victim to reduce blood clotting, hypothermia, paralysis, lower blood pressure and loss of consciousness. The glands have a primitive structure: they do not have channels in the teeth, as, for example, in snakes, but open at the base of the teeth with ducts. Thus, the bite of a Komodo monitor lizard is poisonous.