Saturday, 3 NOV 2012
After leaving Darwin, Australia, we sailed to the very small island of Komodo, famous as the home of the Komodo dragon, the largest of the monitor lizards and living only on this island and a couple of even smaller neighboring islands. The dragon is carnivorous and brings down deer and feral pigs found on the island. It brings them down with microbes and patience. The dragon's saliva is a fertile brew of many different fast-acting pathogenic bacteria. The dragon gives its prey a good flesh-tearing bite and then waits a day or two until the animal dies of the infection. Yum yum! We observed the deer calmly grazing in close proximity to several large dragons without any apparent caution. Maybe that's because a dragon only eats once every few weeks, and he will pursue smaller prey if it is available.
The kapok tree is common on Komodo Island and is used by the few native villagers who still live there.
They say that the Komodo Dragon routinely grows to 2 meters in length, and can get as big as 3 or 4 meters, but only if it has an opportunity to consume a tourist, such as this preoccupied candidate:
Posted from Tyler's iPad
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