Komodo Dragon Facts

• The Komodo dragon is the largest and heaviest living lizard in the world.
• Komodo dragons eat almost any kind of meat.
• Komodo Dragons are easily confused with crocodiles, in fact: They are called the “Ora” or land crocodile by locals.
• They are able to grow as long as 10 feet and weigh about 300 pounds.
• They are able to see prey and other objects as far as 985 feet away.
• This monitors hunting strategy is very simply, it will go for the feet, and bring down the prey. Then it will rip it to pieces.
• People believe that there are now only 4000 Komodo’s left on the planet.
• The saliva from a Komodos mouth contains a host of deadly bacteria.
• In the wild, there are about 4 times as many male Komodos as females.
• A Komodo will go through about 4 or 5 sets of teeth in his life.
• The dragon is able to eat about 80% of its weight in one meal.
• These dragons can run just as fast as we humans can, up to 11 miles an hour, but they tire quickly.
• Once a female lays her eggs, she never comes back to check up on them.
• Young Komodo Dragons are able to climb trees, to help protect them, and to feed.
• The Komodo Dragons ancestors date back over 100 million years.
• The Komodo Dragon has a long life expectancy of about 50 years.
• These Dragons have no natural enemies, the greatest threat they face is from other dragons, and of course, us!
• An old belief of the Chinese was that the tail of a dragon, when ground into powder, was a powerful medicine. Some thought that it could even stop a person from growing old!
• Komodo dragons are pretty cool and pretty amazing