Did you know that the Komodo Dragon is the world's largest lizard? These fascinating animals have a reputation for being dangerous, but really, humans are the actual threat, pushing the incredible Komodo Dragon toward extinction.

Inhabiting lowland, warm grassland areas, the Komodo Dragon uses grass to camouflage itself. As carnivorous animals, Komodo Dragons must hunt their food. They have limited senses of hearing and sight, but use their sense of smell primarily when locating food. The Komodo Dragon will stalk to within a foot of its prey before shuffling its feet loudly, resulting in a rapidly repeating dull gun-shot noise. For larger prey, the Komodo Dragon will knock the animal to the ground in order to kill it, but smaller items will simply be taken by the neck. Because of the bacteria harbored in a Komodo Dragon's mouth, any injury it makes to an animal will become infected and it is likely that the prey will die within days; and the Dragon simply follows it until it succombs to the infection. Komodo Dragons eat a variety of animals, from deer or monkeys to snakes or fish. A Komodo Dragon can consume up to 80 percent of its own body weight in just one sitting! Several Komodo Dragons will feed off of large kills. These animals have no objection to eating carrion, and often must to survive; rarely are predation activities successful. Oddly enough, Komodo Dragons do not develop infections from the bites of other Komodos as most animals would. Because older Komodo Dragons may eat younger ones, immature Komodo Dragons sometimes roll in feces in order to create a natural scented defense that protects them from the notice of older Komodos. Komodos grow slowly and can live for up to 50 years.

At maturity, the Komodo Dragon is gray, green, or black in color and may be flecked with yellow or white. Males grow to about nine feet in length, but can reach 10 feet and weigh up to 550 pounds after eating. Females usually grow to about seven and a half feet long and weigh considerably less than the males. Komodo Dragons have long, forked yellow tongues that allow them to smell. The tongue tips collect airborne molecules of scent, which are then communicated to the animal's Jacobsen's organ when pressed to the roof of the mouth. The Komodo Dragon can sense the location of the smell from the forked receptors; more scent molecules on the right fork mean the source is on the right side of the dragon, and vice-versa. Their serrated teeth contain bits of meat from the Komodo Dragon's last meal, harboring bacteria that make the Komodo's bite dangerous. They have long, sharp claws. It is difficult to sex Komodo Dragons, although on close examination, differences in the scale patterns about the cloaca will differ between the sexes.

Native to Indonesia, more specifically to the island archipelago that includes Komodo Island, the Komodo Dragon is aptly named. In 1910, a Dutch sea captain by the name of Ouwens was the first to introduce the Komodo Dragon to the western world. Although they were placed under protection as early as 1915, the Komodo Dragon is today listed as vulnerable (2001) and its future remains uncertain. Not only are their habitats being destroyed, but their primary prey item, deer is poached by humans. The Indonesian islands of Rintja and Padar are specially reserved for the protection of the world's largest lizard and its prey.

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Usually, Komodo Dragons mate between the months of May and August. Males will fight each other for females and can get quite vicious toward each other in the breeding season. Generally, they will stand upright and wrestle, with the loser running away or playing dead. It has been reported that the winner of the fights will scratch the loosing male's skin leaving visible marks all over his body. The victorious male will flick his tongue over the female, especially in the areas of her temple and the fold of skin between her rear leg and torso. The Komodo Dragon is sexually stimulated by this licking and by a chemical secreted by glands in the skin. After copulation, eggs will be laid in September in scraped out depressions or in nests taken over from birds. Although the female Komodo Dragon may guard the nest after hatching, the young Komodos must fend for themselves. Mortality due to predation is high.