Komodo Dragon

Do you know about the largest lizard ? The largest lizard called Komodo Dragon. It's a native animal. It lives in the scrub and woodland of few Indonesian Islands.

In the wild, an adult komodo dragon usually weighs around 70 kilograms (150 lb), although captive specimens often weigh more. Wild specimen was the largest ever of 3:13 meters in length and weighs about 166 pounds. The Komodo dragon has a tail as long as its body, as well as about 60 frequently replaced serrated teeth that can measure up to 2.5 centimetres (1 in) in length. Its saliva is frequently blood-tinged, because its teeth are almost completely covered by gingival tissue that is naturally lacerated during feeding. This creates an ideal culture for the bacteria that live in its mouth. It also has a long, yellow, deeply forked tongue.

The Komodo dragon prefers hot and dry places, and typically lives in dry open grassland, savanna, and tropical forest at low elevations. Komodo dragons are solitary, coming together only to breed and eat. They are capable of running rapidly in brief sprints up to 20 kilometres per hour (12 mph), diving up to 4.5 metres (15 ft), and climbing trees proficiently when young through use of their strong claws. To catch prey that is out of reach, the Komodo dragon may stand on its hind legs and use its tail as a support.

Komodo dragons are carnivores. Although they eat mostly carrion, hey will also ambush live prey with a stealthy approach. When suitable prey arrives near a dragon's ambush site, it will suddenly charge at the animal and go for the underside or the throat. The Komodo dragon's diet is wide-ranging, and includes invertebrates, other reptiles (including smaller Komodo dragons), birds bird eggs, small mammals, monkeys, wild boar, goats, deer, horses, and water buffalo. Young Komodos will eat insects, eggs, geckos, and small mammals. Occasionally they consume humans and human corpses, digging up bodies from shallow graves.

Auffenberg described the Komodo dragon as having septic pathogens in its saliva (he described the saliva as "reddish and copious"), specifically the bacteria: E.Coili, Staphylococcus sp., Providencia sp., Proteus morgani and P. mirabilis. He noted that while these pathogens can be found in the mouths of wild Komodo dragons, they disappear from the mouths of captive animals, due to a cleaner diet and the use of antibiotics. This was verified by taking mucous samples from the external gum surface of the upper jaw of two freshly captured individuals. Saliva samples were analyzed by researchers at the University of Texas who found 57 strains of bacteria growing in the mouths of three wild Komodo dragons including Pasteurella multocida.

So, dragons are native to Indonesia. This animal has many advantages, one of which can run up to speeds of 20 km / h. Then we have to preserve these animals with a lot of advantages by not hunting, so as not to become extinct in the future