Читать книгу Extreme Nature - Mark Carwardine - Страница 30

NAME	Komodo dragon Varanus komodoensis
LOCATION	islands of Komodo, Rinca, Gili Motang, Gili Dasami and Flores, Indonesia
ABILITY	producing dangerous bacteria-laden saliva

© Mark Carwardine

The Komodo dragon is a renowned giant: the average male is more than 2.2m (7ft 5in) long, and some measure up to 3.1m (10ft 2in). The longest lizard of all, however, is its much slimmer relative, the Salvadori monitor from New Guinea, though two thirds of its 2.7m (8ft 8in) maximum length is made up by its tail.

But the Komodo dragon is the heaviest lizard of all, with an average weight of 60kg (130lb) and a maximum of 80kg (176lb), and it is a fearsome predator. It has large, sharp, serrated teeth for cutting and tearing prey, but its hidden weapon is its bacteria-laden saliva. Once bitten, a victim may escape, but within a few days it will succumb to infection. The dragon then tracks it down with its acute sense of smell – a sense that also makes it a super-efficient scavenger.

Though it is a giant by today’s standards, the Komodo dragon may be a pygmy compared to one of its mainland ancestors (Flores Island supported other ‘pygmies’, including a now-extinct elephant, on which the dragon is believed to have preyed). In Australia there once existed a true giant, the 6.9m (23ft), 617kg (1,370lb) monster monitor Megalania prisca, which became extinct about 40,000 years ago. The Komodo dragon poses relatively little threat to humans and usually only bites when cornered. But Megalania, whether or not it was a deadly drooler, would have been a lizard to be very, very afraid of.