The Dragons of Komodo

Komodo Dragon Around the time of the first world war, there was an airplane crash within the Indonesian waters. The pilot of this crash, not fatally harmed, was able to swim to shore. Upon his arrival, he quickly found that the island, which is to be assumed as the island of Komodo, seemed to be in a sense infested with dinosaur looking lizards. 8 - 12 foot lizards with forked tongues, constantly whipping in and out, adding to the fierce appearance of them.

He was able to swim back to the wreckage and radio for help somehow, and a rescue team arrived shortly after. Now naturally upon his return he quickly spread the story of these dinosaurs, and of course, nobody believed him. However much disbelief there may have been, his story as seen before in the past, sparked the interests of others. So explorers and adventurers set out to discover this lizard. Until about 90 years ago the creature was just a myth, a legend, and a tall tale. Known as a man-eater, a life clutching entity prepared at any moment to devour any unfortunate creature to come across it's presence, and more importantly humans. However, despite the previous myths, around 1910 the lizard, which is most commonly known as the Komodo Dragon, was officially discovered.

There was another creature fitting the description of the Komodo dragon, just overgrown in that it was said to be about twice as long, and five times as bulky as the dragon of Komodo. However this lizard, which was spotted numerous times in Australia, is now extinct. The 200 pound 10' Komodo dragon does exist though. Many rumors of the dragon are also spread around, and to this day are commonly known. And actually, if you ask somebody to name a type of lizard, you probably will have about a 50%, 60% chance of them saying the Komodo dragon. Few facts are actually known by the general congregation of people about the dragon.

Komodo dragons have been known to attack humans, just as the Great White sharks have, and bears, and lions. Even though the last human casualty was back in say 1971 or so, the dragon is still feared greatly by many people. Steps are being taken to this day to attempt domestication of this dragon, which could be in and out of itself a big mistake. The dragon is on the verge of extinction, so of course it is an endangered animal. The actual number of dragons in existence is actually quite sketchy and honestly does not appear to be definitely defined, however I have come to understand that there are probably around 2,000 dragons today. That in and out of it's self may not appear to be all that bad, however there still is the issue that probably only about 30% at the most, of this species are females capable of breeding. That puts them on the verge of extinction. The legends of the Komodo being a man-eater are true in technicality, and it is a fact that the dragon has 4 different bacteria's built up within it's mouth, that have no common cures. When infected by this bacterium, victims will most certainly die within a few days.

The fear brought to people, just as many other animals, has been greatly exaggerated. However it would still be wise to use natural human intelligence over curiosity to give them their room if ever encountered, and obviously RUN if ever chased.

Jeremiah Baldwin (vacsina_tp05vir@hotmail.com) Editor of Exotic Wildlife