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Komodo, or more so-called Komodo dragons (Varanus komodoensis ), is the world's largest lizard species that live on the island of Komodo, Rinca, Flores, Gili Motang, and Gili Dasami in Nusa Tenggara. is the native Komodo Komodo island is also known by the name of the local ora.
Including family members Varanidae lizard, and klad Toxicofera, dragons are the largest lizards in the world, with an average length of 2-3 m. Large size is associated with symptoms of island gigantism, the tendency for body meraksasanya certain animals that live on a small island linked to the absence of mammalian carnivore on the island where dragons live, and the metabolic rate of small dragons. Because of the body, these lizards occupy the position of a top predator that dominates the ecosystems in which they live.
Komodo discovered by western researchers in 1910. Her body is great and terrible reputation that makes them popular in zoos. Dragons in the wild habitat has been shrinking due to human activity and therefore enter the dragons IUCN as a species vulnerable to extinction. This large lizard is now protected under Indonesian law and a national park, the Komodo National Park, established to protect them.Anatomy and morphologyKomodo dragon skin.
In the wild, adult dragons usually weigh about 70 kilograms, but the dragons kept in captivity often have a greater body weight. Wild specimens of the largest ever of 3:13 meters in length and weigh about 166 pounds, including the weight of the undigested food in his stomach. Although the dragon was recorded as the largest living lizard, but not the longest. This reputation is held by Papua lizard (Varanus salvadorii).
Komodo has the same tail length of the body, and about 60 pieces of sharp serrated teeth along about 2.5 cm, which is often replaced. komodo dragons saliva is often mixed with small amount of blood because of their teeth is almost completely covered by gingival tissue and the tissue was torn during a meal . This condition creates an ideal environment for the growth of deadly bacteria that live in their mouth.
Komodo has a long tongue, yellow and branching. Komodo dragons males larger than females, with a skin color from dark gray to brick red, whereas female dragons over green olives, and has a small piece of yellow on the throat. Young Komodo dragons are more colorful, with yellow, green and white on a black background. PhysiologyKomodo is sunbathing.
Komodo does not have the sense of hearing, despite having the ear hole. of this Lizard is able to see as far as 300 m, but because the retina has only cone cells, the animal is probably not so good to see in the dark of night. Komodo is able to distinguish colors, but not much able to distinguish objects that are immobile.
Komodo uses his tongue to detect taste and smell stimuli, like other reptiles, the vomeronasal sensory organ utilizing Jacobson, an ability that can help navigate in the dark. With the help of the wind and the habit of tilting his head side to side when walking, komodo can detect the presence of carrion as far as 4-9.5 kilometers. dragons nostrils olfaction is not a good tool because they do not have the midriff. These animals have no sense of taste on the tongue, there are few nerve endings taste in the back of the throat.
Komodo dragon scales, some of which are reinforced with bone, has a sensor that is connected to nerves that facilitate excitatory touch. Scales around the ears, lips, chin, and soles of the feet have three or more sensor stimulation.
Komodo been considered deaf when the study found that whisper, voice rising and shouting did not result in agitation (interference) in the wild dragons. This was later refuted when employees ZSL London Zoo, Joan Proctor trained lizards to eat out with his voice, even when he is not seen by the lizard. Ecology, behavior and way of lifeLegs and tail dragons.
Komodo dragons are naturally found only in Indonesia, on the island of Komodo, Rinca and Flores and several other islands in Nusa Tenggara. Living in open dry grasslands, savannas and tropical forests at low altitude, these lizards like this place is hot and dry. They are active during the day, although sometimes also active at night. Komodo is a solitary animal, gathered together only at meals and breed.
This large reptile can scoot to 20 miles per hour at short distances; swim very well and can dive as deep as 4.5 meters; are good at climbing trees and using their powerful claws. To catch prey that is outside its reach, the Komodo dragon may stand on its hind legs and uses its tail as a support. With increasing age, more dragons using his claws as weapons, because of its large size made it difficult to climb trees.
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 maintain body heat during the night and reduce the time sunbathing on the next morning. Komodo generally hunt in the afternoon to evening, but still take shelter during the hottest part of the day. These places are usually hidden dragons in the dunes or hills with the sea breeze, the open of the vegetation, and here and there animal feces scattered inhabitants. It is generally also a strategic location for the ambush deer. Behavior eatKomodo on Rinca.
Komodo dragons are carnivores. Although they eat mostly carrion, showed that they also hunt live prey by sneaking followed by a sudden attack against the victim. When prey comes near the hidden dragons, animals be attacked on the underside of the body or throat. Komodo can find their prey using a keen sense of smell, which can be found dead or dying animals at a distance of up to 9.5 kilometers.
Young Komodo Rinca feeding on a buffalo carcass.
This ancient reptile eat by tearing large chunks of meat and then swallowing them round the front leg while holding the body of its prey. For smaller prey up by goats, the meat could be spent in one gulp. Stomach contents of prey in the form of plants are usually left untouched. A reddish saliva and come out in large quantities in a very helpful dragon swallowing its prey. However, the process of swallowing it takes a long time: 15-20 minutes is required to swallow a goat. Komodo is sometimes tried to speed up the process of swallowing it by emphasizing the carrion prey into a tree, so that the carcass could have gotten past the throat. And sometimes it's also cutting down the tree so hard that it becomes horizontal. To avoid so as not to choke when swallowing, dragons breathe through a small channel under the tongue, which relate directly to his lungs. His jaws that can be developed freely, his skull is pliable and elastic stomach to allow the dragons to eat unusual large prey, up to 80% of its own body weight in one meal.After eating, dragons walked dragging his stuffed seeking sunshine for sunbathing and speed up the process of digestion. If not, they can rot in his 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.After the meat undigested prey, dragons spewing the remains of horns, hair and teeth of their prey, in clumps mingled with foul-smelling slime, blobs which are known as gastric pellet. After the dragon sweeping his face to the ground or into the bush to clear mucus remnants still attached, behavior that raises suspicion that the dragons, as well as human, not like the smell of his own saliva. In the collection, the largest-sized dragons usually eat first, followed by a smaller hierarchy. Showed the greatest male dominance through body language and desisannya; are greeted with the same language by a male, other males are less likely to show its recognition of that power. Komodo dragons are the same size, may be fighting pitted forces, by a kind of wrestling lizard, until one of them conceded defeat and retreat, although sometimes the loser can be killed in a fight and devoured by the victor. Komodo dragons prey extremely varied, covering a variety of invertebrates, other reptiles (including also the smaller-bodied dragons), birds and their eggs, small mammals, monkeys, wild pigs, goats, deer, horses and buffalo. Young Komodo dragons prey on insects, eggs, lizards, and small mammals. Sometimes dragons are also prey on humans and the bodies were excavated from the tomb of a shallow hole. This practice led to the population of the island of Komodo avoid sandy soils and selecting bury the corpse in the clay, and covered it with stones so that no dragons can be explored. Others have guessed that the Komodo dragon evolved to prey on pygmy elephant Stegodon that once lived on Flores. The Komodo dragon has also been observed when the shock and scare the deer females who were pregnant, with the hope that a miscarriage and the dead fetus may prey, a behavior that also found in large predators in Africa. Having no midriff, dragons can not breathe in water or licking water to drink (like cats). Instead, the dragons 'catch' the water with the rest of his mouth, then raised his head to prevent water from 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 lizards, monitor lizards and the lizards of the tribe Agamidae, the possibility of having to sort. Is known that the wounds caused by bites of these animals are very prone to infection because of bacteria that live in the mouth of these lizards, but the researchers suggest that the direct effect that appears at the bite wounds were caused by the entry can be powered medium.
These researchers have observed the wounds on the hand held monitor lizard Varanus varius bites, V. Scalaris and dragons, and all showed a similar reaction: rapid swelling within minutes, a local disturbance in the clotting of blood, the pain that gripped up to the elbow, with some symptoms that last up to several hours later.
A gland which can contain highly toxic have been successfully retrieved from the mouth of a Komodo dragon at the Singapore Zoo, and convince the researchers will be content that belongs to dragons
In addition can contain, the Komodo dragon saliva also has a variety of deadly bacteria in it, more than 28 Gram-negative bacteria and 29 Gram-positive have been isolated from saliva. Bacteria that cause septicemia in its victims. If it does not directly kill the dragons bite their prey and prey that can escape this pesky generally prey will die within one week of infection.
The most deadly bacteria in Komodo dragon saliva appears to be the bacterium Pasteurella multocida is very deadly; known from experiments with laboratory rats. Because the Komodo dragon appears immune to its own microbes, much research was done to look for the hope of antibacterial molecules can be used for human treatment.
ReproductionOn this picture, the tail and claw dragons can be seen clearly.Sleeping dragons. Note the large nails. Her nails are used to fight and eat.
Breeding season occurs between May and August, and dragons eggs laid in September. During this period, male dragons battle to defend the females and territory by way of "grappling" with other males while standing on his hind legs. Komodo losers will fall and "locked" into the ground. Both male Komodo dragon is able to vomit or defecate when preparing for a fight.
The winner of the fight will be long tongue flicking on the female body to see the acceptance of the female. and antagonistic female dragons with teeth and claws against them during the initial phase of the pair. Furthermore, the male must be fully in control of the female during intercourse so as not to hurt. Another behavior shown during this process is the male rubbing their chins on the female, hard scratches on your back and lick. copulation occurs when males enter one hemipenisnya into the cloaca of females. The Komodo can be monogamus and form a "pair , "a trait that is rare to a lizard.
Females will lay their eggs in the soil pit, climbing a hill or mound scrape nests burnt-orange legs that have been abandoned. Komodo would prefer to keep their eggs in nests that have been abandoned. [32] An average nest contains dragons 20 eggs which will hatch after 7-8 months. Females lay on the eggs to incubate and protect them until hatch in about April, at the end of the rainy season when there are so many insects.
The hatching process is exhausting effort for children dragons, which came out of the egg shell after tearing the egg tooth which will be dated after the heavy work is completed. After successfully ripping the egg shell, the baby dragons can lay their eggs in the shell for a few hours before starting to dig out their nests. When hatched, the babies are not just how powerless and can be preyed upon by predators.
Young dragons spend his first years in the tree, where they are relatively safe from predators, including adult dragons are cannibals, which is approximately 10% of the lizard-lizard food is a successful youth hunt. Komodo takes three to five years to mature, and can live more than 50 years.
In addition to the normal reproductive process, there are several examples of cases of female dragons to produce children without the presence of males (parthenogenesis), a phenomenon also known to appear in some other reptile species such as the Cnemidophorus.parthenogeneticParthenogenetic baby dragons at Chester Zoo, UK.
River, a Komodo dragon at London Zoo, has been laying eggs in early 2006 after the split of males for more than two years. Scientists initially thought that the Komodo dragon can store sperm for some time the result of mating with a male Komodo dragon at the previous time, an adaptation known as superfekundasi.
On December 20, 2006, it was reported that Flora, the Komodo dragon living in the Chester Zoo, UK is the second known Komodo dragon eggs without fertilization (conception of marriage). He issued 11 eggs, and seven of them successfully hatched.
Researchers from the University of Liverpool in northern England perform genetic tests on three eggs failed to hatch after being transferred to an incubator, and proved that she does not have physical contact with male dragons. After this surprising finding, and testing carried out on eggs of the River and found that even then the eggs produced without outside fertilization.Parthenogenetic baby dragons at Chester Zoo, UK.
Komodo has the ZW chromosomal sex determination system, instead of XY sex-determination system. Flora of androgynous male offspring, indicating the occurrence of several things. Flora is that it is not fertilized eggs are haploid at first and then doubling the chromosomes themselves to be diploid, and that he did not produce diploid eggs, as might happen if one of the cleavage-reduction process of meiosis in the ovaries fail.
When a female Komodo dragon (ZW sex chromosomes) produce a child in this way, he passed only one of the pairs of chromosomes that dipunyainya, including one of the two sex chromosomes. A single set of chromosomes is then duplicated in the eggs, which develop in partenogenetika. Eggs that received Z chromosome would be ZZ (male), and who receive W chromosome will become WW and fail to develop. [
Suspected that this kind of reproductive adaptation allows a female animal that enters an isolated ecological niche (such as islands) and by parthenogenesis and produce male offspring. Through marriage with his son in the next moment these animals can form a sexually reproducing population, because it can result in male and female offspring. Although this adaptation is advantageous, zoos need to be vigilant because they parthenogenesis may reduce genetic diversity.
On January 31, 2008, Sedgwick County Zoo in Wichita, Kansas became the first zoo to document parthenogenesis in Komodo dragons in the United States. The zoo has two adult female Komodo dragon, which one of them produced 17 eggs on 19-20 May 2007. Only two eggs are incubated and hatched due to space availability issues; the first hatched on January 31, 2008, followed by the second on February 1. Both children were androgynous male Komodo dragon. Evolution
The development begins with the evolution of the Komodo dragon Varanus genus, which emerged in Asia about 40 million years ago and then migrated to Australia. About 15 million years ago, meeting the continental shelf of Australia and Southeast Asia allowed the lizard to move toward the region now known as Indonesia. Komodo dragons are believed to have evolved from the ancestors of Australian at about 4 million years ago, and expand the region spreading to the east as far as Timor. Changes in sea ice have been made since the time of dragons agihan limited to areas that are now spreading. dragons and humansRupiah Indonesia coin with a picture of dragons. The discovery
Komodo was first documented by Europeans in 1910. His name was expanded after 1912, when Peter Ouwens, director of the Zoological Museum at Bogor, published a paper about the dragons after receiving photos and reptile skin. Later, the Komodo dragon is the driving factor expedition to the island of Komodo by W. Douglas Burden in 1926. After returning with 12 preserved specimens and two live dragons tail, this expedition provides the inspiration for the movie King Kong in 1933. W. Douglas Burden is the one who first gave the name "Komodo dragon" to these animals. Three of the specimens obtained dragons reshaped into animals on display and is still kept at the American Museum of Natural History.Research
The Dutch, realizing the reduced number of animals in the wild, Komodo dragons hunting ban and limit the number of animals taken for scientific research. Komodo expedition halted during World War II, and was continued until the 1950s and '60an when done studies on the feeding behavior, reproduction and body temperature dragons. In those years, an expedition was designed to examine the other dragons in the long run. This task fell to the Auffenberg family, who then lived for 11 months on the island of Komodo in 1969. During that time, Walter Auffenberg and the writer's son as his assistant, managed to capture and mark more than 50 dragon tail. The results of this expedition was very influential on the increased breeding of dragons. subsequent studies and provide a brighter picture and clear about the nature dragons, that biologists such as Claudio Ciofi continuing to study in more depth. ConservationTwo-tail in Komodo dragons.
Komodo dragons are vulnerable to species extinction, and species categorized as Vulnerable in the IUCN Red List lists. Around 4000-5000 is estimated dragons tail is still alive in the wild. Limited spread of this population on the islands of Rinca (1,300 head), Gili Motang (100), Gili Dasami (100), Komodo (1700), and Flores (perhaps 2,000). However, there was concern about population estimated from all of this because it is only 350 females live a productive and can be breed. [3] Starting from this concern, in 1980 the Government of Indonesia has set the establishment of the Park to protect the Komodo dragon populations and their ecosystems in several islands including Komodo, Rinca, and Padar.
Later also established Nature Reserves Wae Wuul and Wolo Tado on the island of Flores to help the preservation of dragons. But on the other hand, there is evidence to show that the Komodo dragon, at least in part, been accustomed to human presence. Komodo dragons are accustomed-fed cattle carcasses, as attractions to draw tourists to visit multiple sites.
Volcanic activity, earthquakes, destruction of habitat, fire (Padar Island Komodo dragon population is almost extinct due to natural fires , reduced prey, increased tourism, and poaching, all contributed to the vulnerable status that carried the dragons. CITES (the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species) has determined that the trade dragons, skin, and other products from these animals is illegal.
Although rare, Komodo dragons are known to kill humans. On June 4, 2007, a Komodo dragon is known to attack a boy aged eight years. This child died of severe bleeding from his wounds. This is the first record of a fatal attack in 33 years. BreedingToronto Zoo's Komodo.
Komodo dragons have long since become an interesting spectacle in zoos, especially their size and reputation that makes it so popular. Yet these animals are rarely owned zoo, because dragons are vulnerable to infections and parasitic diseases, and not easy to breed.
Komodo dragons are first exhibited at the Smithsonian Zoo in 1934, but these animals survived only for two years. Efforts to preserve these reptiles continue, but the age of these animals in captivity is not so long, on average only 5 years old at the zoo. Research conducted by Walter Auffenberg above, the results were published as the book The Behavioral Ecology of the Komodo Monitor, ultimately allowing the maintenance and breeding of this endangered species in captivity.
It has been observed that many individuals are maintained dragons show a benign behavior for a specified period. Incident was reported on many times, that the keepers managed to bring out the dragons of the cage to interact with visitors, including children are among them, without the harm caused by visitors. [48] [49] Komodo seems to be able to recognize people one by one. Ruston Hartdegen of the Dallas Zoo reported that the maintenance of komodo dragons, react differently when faced with the usual care of the handler, the handler's other more or less already known, or with a handler who is not yet known.
Research on pet dragons to prove that these animals love to play. A study of the dragons who want to push a shovel left by his keeper, clearly shows that animals are attracted to the sound generated when the spade shift along the rocky surface. A young female Komodo dragon in the National Zoo in Washington, DC happy to reach out and shake various objects including statues, beverage cans, plastic rings, and blankets. Komodo is also happy to put his head stuffed into boxes, shoes, and various other objects. The dragons could not distinguish objects had with food, he'd eat it if things had been smeared with the blood of rats. Play behavior can be compared with the behavior of mammals play.
Another note about the pleasure of playing dragons come from the University of Tennessee. A young dragon named "Kraken" playing with the plastic bracelets, shoes, buckets, and tin, by pushing, hitting hit her, and took him with her mouth. Kraken treat those things different from what the food, push-Gordon Burghardt, researchers concluded that these animals have dispelled the notion that a game like that is "motivated predatory behavior-predation".
Even dragons that look benign can behave unexpectedly aggressive, especially if its territory is violated by a stranger. In June 2001, a Komodo dragon attacks causing serious injury to Phil Bronstein - Daily executive editor of the San Francisco Chronicle and Sharon Stone's ex-husband, an American actress best known - when he entered the animal's cage at the invitation of his keeper. Bronstein was bitten by a Komodo dragon in her bare feet, after the handler has advised him to open his white shoes, which is feared could attract the attention of the dragons. Although he managed to escape, but he needs surgery to reconnect the tendon of the injured muscle.
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