Indonesia's Komodo National Park is the natural habitat of the world's largest reptile, the Komodo dragon. This giant carnivorous monitor lizard, also known as "Komodo dragon", is one of the oldest species in the world. In addition to its powerful hunting ability, it also has superb navigation, crawling and swimming abilities. Unfortunately, they are now on the verge of extinction, with only more than 5,700 species in the wild.
Komodo National Park, inscribed on the World Natural Heritage List in 1991, consists of three large islands, Komodo, Bada and Rinja, and 26 nearby small islands. This national park was established to protect Komodo dragons and other creatures including marine species.
In the long history, ancient reptiles have experienced tens of millions of years and often evolved into many branches. The monitor lizard, known in awe by the world as the "Komodo dragon", has traveled through time and space and is the largest and strongest lizard in existence on earth. It is said that its ancestor was the top predator in the Mesozoic ocean - Mosasaurus, which appeared in the middle and late Cretaceous period and went extinct at the same time as the dinosaurs.
When I set foot on Komodo Island, when I first saw two adult male monitor lizards resting in the shade, it was as if I saw dinosaurs: thick dark brown skin with dense bumps, flat and huge heads, The hooked claws are extremely sharp, and the thick and powerful long tail accounts for nearly half of the body length. These powerful characters who seem to have walked out of "Jurassic Park" are called "Oras" by the locals, which means "land crocodile".
In 1988, after the completion of Komodo National Park, there were still more than 2,000 residents living on Komodo Island; there were also two small villages on Rinja Island, with a total of more than 1,000 people. The government paid to help these villagers build fences to prevent monitor lizards from attacking people and livestock. The villagers have also become guardians of monitor lizards. Because of the effective protection, the number of monitor lizards in the national park has risen to 2,897, including 1,727 on Komodo Island and 1,049 on Rinja Island. Including those from nearby islands, the total number exceeds 3,000. Although numbers are steadily increasing, slow reproduction, poacher attacks and natural diseases still threaten the survival of the Komodo dragon.
The guide Severnius has been working here for 10 years. This black and thin young man took a wooden fork and took me to a few monitor lizards near the visitor center. "These are adult monitor lizards. Males are darker in color and can reach 3 meters in length, while females are only about 2 meters." While speaking, Severnius pointed to the roof, indicating that there was a small monitor lizard above me. This little monitor lizard, about one and a half years old, has a brownish-yellow body with black spots all over its body. It slipped down from the roof nimbly, climbed up a tree nimbly, and used its long tongue to search for something in the tree hole. "It's looking for small animals hidden in tree holes, such as mice, insects, etc."
Under the hot noon sun, the Komodo dragon lay lazily in the shade. Although it is near the equator, there is no dense tropical rain forest on the island, only sparse trees, arid hills and valleys, low thorny thorns and shrubs, which contrast with the blue coast and white sandy beaches not far away. 130 million years ago, the islands formed by these submarine volcanic eruptions were isolated from the world, and there were no other large carnivores on the islands to compete with them. Therefore, the Komodo dragons obtained unique living conditions and evolved a huge body size.
At this time, a monitor lizard approached, its round eyes looked around alertly, swaying its sturdy limbs, shaking its head when walking, dragging its big tail forward, it seemed to be swallowing mountains and rivers. At the same time, it frequently sticks out its long, forked tongue. This is its "detection tool", which is similar to the snake letter child. Their tongues are densely covered with sensitive sensor cells, like radar antennas, which specifically detect odors in the air, so as to accurately determine the type and location of prey, and even smell blood and carrion from two kilometers away.
The "recipes" of Komodo dragons are all-encompassing. In addition to their scavenging preferences, common herbivores on the island such as Timor deer, wild boar and buffalo are their favorites, and sometimes even weaker ones will not be spared . Komodo dragons rarely hunt down their prey. Although they run extremely fast and can accelerate to 30 kilometers per hour in an instant, their usual hunting method is ambush: first slowly approach the prey, and then wait for an opportunity to take a bite.
This is because the venomous glands on the Komodo dragon are located under the jaw. After the prey is bitten by it, the toxin will slowly enter the body, making its blood unable to coagulate, and the prey will eventually die due to continuous bleeding. Even if the prey can't be killed in one hit and escape accidentally, in the following week or even two weeks, the Komodo dragon with a keen sense of smell will follow the smell of blood, follow it persistently, and wait for the prey quietly beside it. Weakened gradually until he lost his life, and then stepped forward to feast on it. Komodo dragons are probably the most patient predators I've ever seen, and it's these special abilities that have allowed them to stay at the top of the island's food chain for so long.
Due to the hot and arid living environment and very few fresh water sources, Komodo dragons rarely drink water, usually relying on the blood of their prey to quench their thirst. Monitor lizards occasionally go to sea to swim. Most cold-blooded reptiles lack aerobic ability, inflexibility, and poor endurance, but Komodo dragons far surpass other reptiles in terms of endurance and speed. It turns out that genetic adaptations have changed mitochondrial function in their body cells, enhanced aerobic exercise capacity, and are more resistant to fatigue than ordinary reptiles, which is also unusual for Komodo dragons.
Komodo dragons have a very strong sense of territory. On every turf there is a ruler who asserts his absolute power by laying down on others of his kind. Once a challenger is encountered, a fight is inevitable. These giant beasts are very powerful when fighting. They will lift their upper bodies with their hind paws, attack each other with their front paws, and bite each other. At first glance, it looks like two tyrannosaurs are fighting.
Dragons are mythical beasts, while Komodo dragons are real. Dinosaurs have long since become fossils, but the last representative of the monitor lizard population 3.8 million years ago, the Komodo dragons, are still active on the earth. They were fortunately left on these isolated islands during the crustal movement, and have survived nearly a million It is a miracle that it has managed to maintain its huge body and strong predation ability during the changes in the island habitat over the years.
Komodo National Park
Selected time: 1991
Heritage number: 609
World Heritage Committee evaluation:
These volcanic islands inhabit about 5,700 monitor lizards, which are called "Komodo dragons" because of their appearance and aggressive temperament. They exist only here and are of great interest to scientists who study evolution. The arid savannah here, with its rugged hillsides covered with prickly green vegetation, contrasts with the dazzling white sand beaches and surging blue waters.
