Komodo is naturally only found in Indonesia, on the island of Komodo, Flores and Rinca and several other islands in Nusa Tenggara. Living in open dry grasslands, savannas and tropical forests at low altitudes, this lizard likes it hot and dry place. They are active during the day, although sometimes it is also active at night. Komodo dragons are largely solitary, coming together only to breed and eat.
Large reptiles can sprint up to 20 miles per hour in short distances; swim very well and can dive as deep as 4.5 meters; as well as clever climb trees using their powerful claws. To catch prey that is beyond its reach, the Komodo dragon may stand on its hind legs and use its tail as a support. With increasing age, dragon claws are used primarily as a weapon, because of its large size makes climbing impractical.
For shelter, dragons dig holes 1-3 meters wide with the front legs and strong claws. Because of her size and habit of sleeping in a hole, dragons can conserve body heat throughout the night and reduces the time sunbathing on the next morning. Komodo generally hunt at noon until late afternoon, but still shade during the hottest part of the day. These places hidden dragons are usually located in the dunes or hills with the sea breeze, open from vegetation, and here and there manure scattered inhabitants. The place is generally also a strategic location to ambush deer.
Feeding behavior
Komodo dragons are carnivores. Although
they eat mostly carrion, studies show that they also hunt live prey
with a stealthy approach followed by a sudden attack against the
victim. When
the prey arrives near the hidden dragons, animals be attacked on the
underside or the throat. Komodo dragons can locate its prey using
its keen sense of smell, which can locate a dead or dying animal at a
distance of 9.5 kilometers.
Ancient reptiles ate by tearing large chunks of flesh and then swallow her whole body while the legs hold her prey. For small prey up for lamb, the meat can be spent on one swallow. Stomach contents of prey in the form of herbs are usually left untouched.
Reddish saliva and out in large quantities is very helpful to dragons in swallowing prey. However, ingestion still take a long time; takes 15-20 minutes to swallow a goat. Komodo is sometimes trying to speed up the process of swallowing it by emphasizing carrion prey to a tree, so that the carcass can get past the throat. And sometimes the efforts to push it so hard that the tree was to be collapsed.
To avoid so as not to choke when swallowing, dragons breathing through a small tube under the tongue, which is connected directly to the lungs. jaws that can be developed freely, flexible skull, and stomach stretched to allow dragons eat a tremendous large prey, up to 80% of their own body weight in one meal.
After eating, walking dragons dragged her body stuffed seek sunlight for sunbathing and speed digestion. Otherwise, the food could rot in the stomach and poison their own bodies. Due to a slow metabolism, large dragons can survive by just eating 12 times a year or about once a month.
Once the meat is digested prey, the Komodo dragon regurgitates a mass of horns, hair and teeth prey, in clumps mixed with foul-smelling mucus, which clumps known as gastric pellet. After that rubs its face in the dirt or on bushes to clean up the remnants of the mucus, behavior which led to speculation that it, like humans, do not like the smell of her own spit.
In the collection, most large-sized dragons usually eat first, followed by smaller according to the hierarchy. Most males show dominance through body language and desisannya; were greeted with the same language by male-male other smaller to show its recognition of that power. Prey were of the same size may be fighting pitting forces, the monitor lizards wrestling kind of way, until one of them admit defeat and retreat; although sometimes that can be killed in a fight lost and devoured by the winner.
Komodo dragons prey is wide-ranging, and includes invertebrates, other reptiles (including the smaller-bodied dragons), birds and their eggs, small mammals, monkeys, wild boar, goats, deer, horses, and buffalo. Young Komodo dragons prey on insects, eggs, lizards, and small mammals. Sometimes the dragons also prey on humans and bodies unearthed from a shallow grave pit. This practice led to Komodo island residents avoid sandy soils and choose bury the corpse in clay, and covered it with stones that can not be extracted dragons.
There is also a suspect that dragons evolved to Stegodon dwarf elephant that ever lived on Flores.Komodo also been observed when the shock and scare the deer pregnant female, in the hope that a miscarriage and the fetus can be eaten carcass, a behavior which also found in large predators in Africa.
Because it does not have a diaphragm, dragons can not breathe in water or licking water to drink (like a cat). Instead, the dragons 'scoop' the water with the rest of his mouth, then lifted his head so that the water flowing into the stomach.
Can and bacteria
In late 2005, researchers from the University of Melbourne, Australia, concluded that Perentie lizard (Varanus giganteus) and other lizard-lizard, and the lizards from the tribe Agamidae, is likely to have some sort of can. It was known that the wounds caused by bites of these animals are very prone to infection because of the bacteria that live in the mouth of these lizards, but the researchers suggest that the direct effect that appears at the bite wounds can be caused by the inclusion of a magnitude medium.
These researchers have observed the wounds in the hands of humans from the bite lizard Varanus varius, V. scalaris and dragons, and all of them showed a similar reaction: rapid swelling within minutes, localized disruption of blood clotting, pain that gripped up to the elbow, with some symptoms that last up to several hours later.
A gland that can contain highly toxic has been successfully retrieved from the mouth of a Komodo dragon at the Singapore Zoo, and convince the researchers will be content that belongs dragons.
In addition it contains can, dragons saliva also has a variety of deadly bacteria in it, more than 28 Gram-negative bacteria Gram-positive and 29 have been isolated from the saliva. These bacteria cause septicemia in their victims. If not directly kill the dragons bite prey and the prey can escape, generally unlucky prey will die within a week of infection.
The most deadly bacteria in Komodo dragon saliva bacteria Pasteurella multocida presumably is highly lethal; known through experiments with laboratory rats. Because the Komodo dragon appears immune to its own microbes, much research was done to find antibacterial molecules in the hope it can be used for human treatment.
