Little dragons of our planet. Dragons in the wild An unusual strategy in dragon hunting
home Dragon from Komodo Island (lat. Varanus komodoensis
), also known as the Komodo monitor lizard, also known as the giant Indonesian monitor lizard, is a lizard with the most impressive dimensions in the world.
flickr/Antoni Sesen
The average weight of the giant is 90 kg, and the body length is, accordingly, 2.5 m, while the tail occupies almost half of the body. And the length of the most powerful specimen, the parameters of which were officially recorded, exceeded 3 meters and weighed 160 kg.
The appearance of the Komodo dragon is most interesting - either a lizard, or a dragon, or a dinosaur. And the island aborigines believe that this creature is most similar to an alligator, and therefore they call it buaya darat, which translated from the local dialect means land crocodile. And although the Komodo dragon has only one head and does not spew out flames from its nostrils, there is undoubtedly something aggressive in the appearance of this reptile. This impression is reinforced by the color of the monitor lizard - dark brown, with yellowish splashes, and (especially!) appearance
teeth - compressed from the sides, with cutting, jagged edges. A quick glance at this perfect arsenal, which is a “dragon” jaw, is enough to understand: the Komodo dragon is not to be trifled with. With more than 60 teeth and a jaw structure reminiscent of a shark's mouth, isn't this the perfect killing machine? What makes up the diet of a giant reptile? No, no, monitor lizards have only external similarities with vegetarian dinosaurs: gastronomic preferences Komodo dragon's food preferences are strikingly different ancient ancestor
Indeed, cannibalism is a quite common phenomenon among Komodo dragons: the lunch menu of adult monitor lizards often includes younger, smaller relatives. A hungry monitor lizard can also pose a threat to humans, and there are often cases when the prey matches the attacker in its weight category. How do lizards manage to defeat their prey? Monitor lizards stalk large prey from ambush, and at the moment of attack they either knock down the victim with a powerful blow of the tail, breaking its legs, or bite their teeth into the flesh of a wild boar or deer, inflicting a deadly laceration.
The chances of survival of a wounded animal are scanty, since during a bite dangerous bacteria from oral cavity lizard, as well as poison from the poisonous glands of the reptile's lower jaw. The inflammation develops at an accelerated pace, and the Komodo dragon can only wait for the victim to completely lose his strength and be unable to resist. He stubbornly follows the wounded prey, without letting it out of sight. Sometimes such tracking lasts up to three weeks - after that time, a buffalo bitten by a monitor lizard dies.
In the photo there is me, the dragon and a slightly excited Lera :)
Those who want to see these handsome guys in natural environment habitat would have to go to the Indonesian islands, since Komodo dragons live there. However, daredevils who are planning such a trip should be as careful as possible: monitor lizards have a keen sense of smell, and even a tiny drop of blood from a minor scratch on the body can attract a lizard located at a distance of 5 km with its smell. There have been cases of attacks on tourists, so rangers accompanying tourist groups are usually armed with long, strong poles. Just in case.
Komodo dragon(giant Indonesian monitor, Komodos monitor) ( Dragon from Komodo Island (lat.) is the largest in the world. The predatory reptile belongs to the order Squamate, superfamily Varanidae, family of monitor lizards, genus of monitor lizards. The Komodo dragon, also called the “dragon of Komodo Island,” got its name from one of its habitats.
Seasoned and strong monitor lizards can easily cope with more impressive prey: wild boars, buffalos, and goats. Often, the teeth of adult Komodo dragons fall into the teeth of livestock, those who came to water bodies to drink, or those who accidentally met on the path of this dangerous lizard.
The Komodo monitor lizard is also dangerous for humans; there are known cases of these predators attacking people. If there is not enough food, large monitor lizards can attack smaller relatives. When eating food, the Komodo dragon can swallow very large pieces thanks to the movable connection of the bones of the lower jaw and a capacious stomach, which tends to stretch.
Komodo dragon hunting
The hunting principle of the Komodo dragon is quite cruel. Sometimes a large predatory lizard attacks its prey from ambush, suddenly knocking down its “future dinner” with a powerful and sharp blow of its tail. Moreover, the force of the impact is so great that potential prey often suffers broken legs. 12 out of 17 deer die on the spot when fighting with a lizard. However, sometimes the victim manages to escape, although she may suffer severe injuries in the form of torn tendons or lacerations in the abdomen or neck, which leads to inevitable death. The venom of the monitor lizard and the bacteria contained in the reptile's saliva weaken the victim. In large prey, such as buffalo, death can occur only 3 weeks after a fight with a monitor lizard. Some sources indicate that the giant Komodo dragon will chase its prey by scent and traces of blood until it is completely exhausted. Some animals manage to escape and heal their wounds, other animals fall into the clutches of predators, and others die from wounds inflicted by the 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 does die, monitor lizards come running to the smell of carrion to eat the dead animal.
Komodo dragon venom
Previously, it was believed that the saliva of the Komodo dragon 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 which produce special toxic proteins that cause decreased blood clotting, hypothermia, paralysis, low blood pressure and loss of consciousness in the bitten victim. The glands have a primitive structure: they do not have canals in the teeth, like, for example, in snakes, but open at the base of the teeth with ducts. Thus, the bite of the Komodo dragon is poisonous.
In December 1910, the Dutch administration on the island of Java received information from the administrator of the island of Flores (for civil affairs), Stein van Hensbrouck, that there were no people living on the outlying islands of the Lesser Sunda archipelago. known to science giant creatures.
Van Stein's report stated that in the vicinity of Labuan Badi on Flores Island, as well as on nearby Komodo Island, there lives an animal that the local natives call "buaya-darat", which means "earth crocodile".
Of course, you already guessed who we’re talking about now...
Photo 2. 
According to local residents, the length of some monsters reaches seven meters, and three- and four-meter buaya-darats are common. The curator of the Butsnzorg Zoological Museum at the Botanical Park of West Java Province, Peter Owen, immediately entered into correspondence with the manager of the island and asked him to organize an expedition in order to obtain a reptile unknown to European science.
This was done, although the first lizard caught was only 2 meters 20 centimeters long. Hensbroek sent her skin and photographs to Owens. In the accompanying note, he said that he would try to catch a larger specimen, although this would not be easy, since the natives were terrified of these monsters. Convinced that the giant reptile is not a myth, Zoo museum sent an animal control specialist to Flores. As a result, the staff of the zoological museum managed to obtain four specimens of “earthen crocodiles,” two of which were almost three meters long.
Photo 3. 
In 1912 Peter Owen 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 dragon (Varanus komodoensis Ouwens). It later turned out that giant monitor lizards are found not only on Komodo, but also on the small islands of Rytya and Padar, lying to the 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 12 years later interest in the Komodo dragon resumed. Now the main researchers of the giant reptile are US zoologists. On English language this reptile became known as komodo dragon(comodo dragon). The expedition of Douglas Barden managed to catch a living specimen for the first time in 1926. In addition to two living specimens, Barden also brought 12 stuffed specimens to the United States, three of which are on display at the American Museum of Natural History in New York.
Photo 4. 
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 the Komodo dragon. 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 animals such as the maned sambar, Asian water buffalo, wild boar, and cynomolgus macaque.
Photo 5. 
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 a length of three meters, and females are much smaller, their length is no more than two meters.
Many years of research have made it possible to thoroughly study 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-sunny areas, and are usually associated with arid plains, savannas and dry tropical forests.
Photo 6. 
In the hot season (May - October) they often stick to dry river beds 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 adult relatives. Giant monitor lizards are cannibals, and adults, on occasion, will not miss the opportunity to feast on their smaller relatives. As shelter from heat and cold, monitor lizards use burrows 1-5 m long, which they dig with strong paws with long, curved and sharp claws. Tree hollows often serve as shelters for young monitor lizards.
Komodo dragons, despite their size and external clumsiness, are good runners. Over short distances, reptiles can reach speeds of up to 20 kilometers, and over long distances their speed is 10 km/h. To get food located at a height (for example, on a tree), monitor lizards can stand on hind legs using the tail as support. Reptiles have good hearing and sharp eyesight, but their most important sense organ is smell. These reptiles are able to smell carrion or blood at a distance of even 11 kilometers.
Photo 7. 
Most of the monitor lizard population lives in the western and northern parts of the Flores Islands - about 2000 specimens. On Komodo and Rinca there are approximately 1000 each, and on the smallest islands of the group, Gili Motang and Nusa Koda, there are only 100 individuals.
At the same time, it was noticed that the number of monitor lizards has fallen and individuals are gradually becoming smaller. 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.
Photo 8. 
From modern species Only the Komodo dragon and the crocodile monitor attack prey significantly larger than itself. The crocodile monitor's teeth are very long and almost straight. This is an evolutionary adaptation for successful bird feeding (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 life.
Venomous teeth - poisonous lizards. Today there are two known types of them - the gila monster and the escorpion. They live primarily in the southwestern United States and Mexico in rocky foothills, semi-deserts and deserts. Venom teeth are most active 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 biting, the teeth of the poisonous teeth - long and curved back - enter the body of the victim almost half a centimeter.
Photo 9. 
The menu of monitor lizards includes a wide variety of animals. They eat almost everything: large insects and their larvae, crabs and storm-washed fish, rodents. And although monitor lizards are born scavengers, they are also active hunters, and large animals often become their prey: wild boars, deer, dogs, domestic and wild goats, and even the largest ungulates of these islands - Asian water buffalo.
Giant monitor lizards do not actively pursue their prey, but more often hide it and grab it when it approaches at close range.
Photo 10. 
When hunting large animals, reptiles use very intelligent tactics. Adult monitor lizards, emerging from the forest, slowly move towards grazing animals, stopping from time to time and crouching to the ground if they feel that they are attracting their attention. They can knock down wild boars and 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.
Photo 11. 
It has long been believed that the prey is ultimately killed by pathogens found in the monitor lizard's saliva. But in 2009, scientists found that in addition to the “deadly cocktail” of pathogenic bacteria and viruses found in saliva, to which monitor lizards themselves have immunity, reptiles are poisonous.
Research led by Bryan Fry from the University of Queensland (Australia) has shown that in terms of the number and types of bacteria typically found in the mouth of the Komodo dragon, it is not fundamentally different from other carnivores.
Moreover, as Fry states, the Komodo dragon is a very clean animal.
Komodo dragons, which inhabit the islands of Indonesia, are the largest predators on these islands. They hunt pigs, deer and Asian buffalo. 75% of pigs and deer die from the bite of a monitor lizard within 30 minutes from loss of blood, another 15% - after 3-4 hours from the poison secreted by its salivary glands.
A larger animal, a buffalo, when attacked by a monitor lizard, always, despite deep wounds, leaves the predator alive. Following his instinct, the bitten buffalo usually seeks refuge in a warm pond, the water of which is teeming with anaerobic bacteria, and eventually succumbs to infection that penetrates into its legs through the wounds.
Pathogenic bacteria found in the oral cavity of the Komodo dragon in previous studies, according to Fry, are traces of infections entering its body from an infected drinking water. The amount 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. When these proteins enter the victim’s body, they prevent blood clotting and reduce blood pressure, contribute to muscle paralysis and the development of hypothermia. The whole thing leads the victim to shock or loss of consciousness. The venom gland of Komodo dragons is more primitive than that of poisonous snakes. The gland is located on the lower jaw under the salivary glands, its ducts open at the base of the teeth, and do not exit through special channels in the poisonous teeth, like in snakes.
Photo 12. 
In the oral cavity, poison and saliva mix with decaying food debris, forming a mixture in which many different deadly bacteria multiply. But this is not what surprised scientists, but the poison delivery system. It turned out to be the most complex of all similar systems in reptiles. Instead of injecting it with one blow with its teeth, like poisonous snakes, monitor lizards have to literally rub it into the wound of the victim, making jerks with their jaws. This evolutionary invention has helped giant monitor lizards survive for thousands of years.
Photo 14. 
After a successful attack, time begins to work for the reptile, and the hunter is left to follow the heels of 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 give way and it falls. It's time for a feast for the monitor lizard. He slowly approaches the victim and rushes at him. His relatives come running to the smell of blood. In feeding areas, fights often occur between equal males. As a rule, they are cruel, but not deadly, as evidenced by the numerous scars on their bodies.
For humans, a huge head covered like a shell, with unkind, unblinking eyes, a toothy gaping mouth, from which protrudes a forked tongue, constantly in motion, a lumpy and folded body of a dark brown color on strong splayed paws with long claws and a massive tail. is the living embodiment of the image of extinct monsters of distant eras. One can only be amazed how such creatures could survive today practically unchanged.
Photo 15. 
Paleontologists believe that 5-10 million years ago, the ancestors of the Komodo dragon appeared in Australia. This assumption fits well with the fact that the only known representative of large reptiles is Megalania prisca measuring from 5 to 7 m and weighing 650-700 kg was found on this continent. Megalania, and the full name of the monstrous reptile can be translated from Latin language, as a “great ancient vagabond,” preferred, like the Komodo dragon, to settle in grassy savannas and sparse forests, where he hunted mammals, including very large ones, such as diprodonts, various reptiles and birds. These were the biggest poisonous creatures that have ever existed on Earth.
Fortunately, these animals became extinct, but their place was taken by the Komodo dragon, and now it is these reptiles that attract thousands of people to come to the islands forgotten by time to see the last representatives of the ancient world in natural conditions.
Photo 16. 
Indonesia has 17,504 islands, although these numbers are not definitive. The Indonesian government has set itself the difficult task of conducting a complete audit of all Indonesian islands without exception. And who knows, maybe after it’s over there will still be open known to people animals, although not as dangerous as Komodo dragons, but certainly no less amazing!
- Class: Reptilia = Reptiles (Reptiles)
- Subclass: Lepidosauria = Lepidosaurs, scaly lizards
- Order: Squamata Oppel = Scaly
- Suborder: Lacertilia Owen = Lizards
- Family: Varanidae Gray, 1827 = Monitor lizards
Species: Varanus komodoensis = Komodo dragon, ora
Although dragons are fantastic creatures and, by and large, there are no such animals in nature, nevertheless, this is the name of the existing giant monitor lizards. Giant monitor lizards now live on the Indonesian islands of Komodo, Rinca, Fleres and several other small nearby islands.
There appear to be somewhere around 5,000 individuals within their range across all the islands.
Living dragons or giant monitor lizards are of great interest to tourists visiting Indonesia.
Therefore, in order to see this amazing animal - a miracle of nature, about 1 thousand tourists specially come to Komodo Island every month. And they are going with one goal - to visit Komodo National Park, where they can see living legendary dragons. Komodo Island is located in the Lesser Sunda Islands group, and to get to it, you need to swim across the treacherous Seip Strait. Tourists are prohibited from walking around the park on their own. The reason for such strictness is simple: you can be eaten. In addition, the places where you can meet the dragon are known only to park rangers. between the bushes, crawled on his knees a few feet and motioned for Jane to follow him. In the middle of the clearing rises a wide hill. Howe suspected that it was here, on the nesting ground of the greatfoots, the long-legged brown weed chickens, that the female dragon buried her eggs. Slowly following the caretaker, Jane crept to the very edge of the nest. At this time, Howe pointed his hand towards the low-hanging branches. At first Jane didn't notice anything. And suddenly, 10 steps away from her, she saw a female dragon about 180 centimeters long lying on the ground among the fallen leaves.
For some time, the people and the dragon carefully examined each other, when suddenly, without any warning, the female, sticking out her long yellow forked tongue, moved towards them. Howe and Jane immediately rushed back. They both knew that dragons are not to be trifled with. They have a disgusting reputation: they cannot be tamed and do not distinguish between humans and deer - both are just food for them. True, they say that in private, keepers treat them quite familiarly: they caress them and sometimes even ride them on horseback. Nowadays, Komodo dragons are in danger of extinction. All types of animals belonging to this category always attract human attention. Therefore, it is not surprising that in Komodo, 700 kilometers away from the island of Borneo, once a week a kind of show with dragons is staged, which is attended by up to 13,000 thrill-seekers.
Throughout the entire historical path of their development, dragons had a strong reputation as carnivores. Perhaps they even ate dwarf elephants when they were still found here. Now the objects of their hunt are buffalo, deer, wild goats and pigs, which settled on the islands in a later period. But the reptiles themselves are not threatened by anyone, except humans, of course, and... brothers. Yes, dragons are cannibals.
Some statistics: Over the last 65 years (until 1993), 280 dragons were killed by humans. During the same time, the dragons killed and wounded 12 people. The main attraction of the park on Komodo Island is feeding the dragons. Out of curiosity, only twice a week do they bring a live goat to them, but the monitor lizards stubbornly wait for the keepers every day, which seems to do no honor to their intelligence.
The largest monitor lizard on Earth lives on the Indonesian island of Komodo. This big lizard locals called it “the last dragon” or “buaya darat”, i.e. "a crocodile crawling on the ground." There are not many Komodo dragons left in Indonesia, so since 1980 this animal has been included in the IUCN.
What does a Komodo dragon look like?
The appearance of the most gigantic lizard on the planet is very interesting - the head is like a lizard, the tail and paws are like an alligator, the muzzle is very reminiscent of a fairy-tale dragon, except that fire does not erupt from its huge mouth, but there is something bewitchingly scary in this animal. An adult Komod monitor lizard weighs over one hundred kilograms and can reach three meters in length. There are known cases when zoologists came across very large and powerful Komodo dragons, weighing one hundred and sixty kilograms.
The skin of monitor lizards is mainly gray with light spots. There are individuals with black skin color and with yellow small drops. The Komodo lizard has strong, “dragon” teeth, all serrated. Just once, looking at this reptile, you can be seriously frightened, since its menacing appearance directly “screams” to be captured or killed. It's no joke, the Komodo dragon has sixty teeth.
This is interesting! If you catch a Komodo giant, the animal will become very excited. From a previously seemingly cute reptile, the monitor lizard can turn into an angry monster. He can easily, with the help of , knock down the enemy who grabbed him, and then mercilessly injure him. Therefore, it is not worth the risk.
If you look at the Komodo dragon and its small legs, you can assume that it moves slowly. However, if the Komodo monitor feels danger, or he spots a worthy victim in front of him, he will immediately try to accelerate to a speed of twenty-five kilometers per hour in a few seconds. One thing can save the victim, fast running, since monitor lizards cannot move quickly for a long time, they become very exhausted.
This is interesting! The news has repeatedly mentioned killer Komodo dragons that attacked people when they were very hungry. There was a case when large monitor lizards entered villages, and, noticing children running away from them, caught up and tore them apart. The following story also happened when a monitor lizard attacked hunters who had shot a deer and were carrying the prey on their shoulders. The monitor lizard bit one of them to take away the desired prey.
Komodo dragons are excellent swimmers. There are eyewitnesses who claim that the lizard was able to swim across the raging sea from one huge island to another within a few minutes. However, to do this, the monitor lizard needed to stop for about twenty minutes and rest, since it is known that monitor lizards get tired quickly
Origin story
People started talking about Komodo dragons at the time when, at the beginning of the 20th century, on the island. Java (Holland) received a telegram from the manager that in the Lesser Sunda Archipelago there live huge, either dragons or lizards, which scientific researchers have not yet heard of. Van Stein from Flores wrote about this, that near the island of Flores and on Komodo there lives a “land crocodile” still incomprehensible to science.
Local residents told Van Stein that monsters inhabit the entire island, they are very ferocious, and they are feared. Such monsters can reach 7 meters in length, but Komodo dragons that are four meters long are more common. Scientists from the Zoological Museum of the island of Java decided to ask Van Stein to gather people from the island and get the lizard about which European science I didn't know yet.
And the expedition managed to catch a Komodo dragon, but it was only 220 cm tall. Therefore, the searchers decided, at all costs, to get the giant reptiles. And they eventually managed to bring 4 large Komodo crocodiles, each three meters, to the zoological museum.
Later, in 1912, everyone already knew about the existence of the giant reptile from the published almanac, in which a photograph of a huge lizard was printed with the caption “Komodo dragon.” After this article, Komodo dragons also began to be found in the vicinity of Indonesia, on several islands. However, only after the Sultan’s archives were studied in detail, it became known that giant foot-and-mouth disease was known as early as 1840.
It so happened that in 1914, when the world war began, a group of scientists had to temporarily close the research and capture of Komodo dragons. However, 12 years later they started talking about Komodo dragons in America and called them “dragon comodo” in their native language.
Habitat and life of the Komodo dragon
For over two hundred years now, scientists have been studying the life and habits of the Komodo dragon, and also studying in detail what and how these giant lizards eat. It turned out that cold-blooded reptiles do not do anything during the day; they are active in the morning until the sun rises and only from five in the evening they begin to look for prey. Komodo monitor lizards do not like moisture; they mainly settle where there are dry plains or live in tropical forests.
The giant Komodo reptile is initially clumsy, but can reach unprecedented speeds, up to twenty kilometers. Even alligators don't move fast like that. They also find food easy if it is at a high altitude. They calmly rise on their hind legs and, relying on their strong and powerful tail, get food. They can smell their future victim very far away. They can also smell blood at a distance of eleven kilometers and notice the victim far away, since their hearing, sight, and smell are excellent!
Monitor lizards love to treat anyone delicious meat. They will not refuse one large rodent or several, and will even eat insects and larvae. When all the fish and crabs are washed ashore by a storm, they are already scurrying here and there along the shore to be the first to eat the “seafood”. Monitor lizards feed mainly on carrion, but there have been cases when dragons have attacked wild sheep, water buffalo, dogs and feral goats.
Komodo dragons do not like to prepare for a hunt in advance; they stealthily attack the prey, grab it and quickly drag it to their shelter.
Reproduction of monitor lizards
Monitor lizards mate mainly in warm summer, in mid-July. Initially, the female is looking for a place where she can safely lay her eggs. She does not choose any special places; she can take advantage of the nests of wild chickens living on the island. By sense of smell, as soon as the female Komodo dragon finds the nest, she buries the eggs so that no one will find them. Nimble wild boars, which are accustomed to destroying bird nests, are especially greedy for dragon eggs. Since the beginning of August, one female monitor lizard can lay more than 25 eggs. The weight of the eggs is two hundred grams and ten or six centimeters in length. As soon as the female monitor lizard lays her eggs, he does not leave them, but waits until her cubs hatch.
Just imagine, the female waits all eight months for the cubs to be born. Small dragon lizards are born at the end of March and can reach 28 cm in length. Small lizards do not live with their mother. They settle down to live on tall trees and there they eat what they can. Cubs are afraid of adult alien monitor lizards. Those who survived and did not fall into the tenacious clutches of hawks and snakes swarming on the tree begin to independently search for food on the ground after 2 years, when they grow up and get stronger.
Keeping monitor lizards in captivity
It is rare that giant Komodo dragons are domesticated and placed in zoos. But, surprisingly, monitor lizards quickly get used to humans, they can even be tamed. One of the representatives of the monitor lizards lived in the London Zoo, freely ate from the hands of the beholder and even followed him everywhere.
Nowadays, Komodo dragons live in national parks Rindja and Komodo Islands. They are listed in the Red Book, so hunting these lizards is prohibited by law, and according to the decision of the Indonesian committee, the capture of monitor lizards is carried out only with a special permit.