Varanidae
Squamata
Reptilia
Incubation of approximately 8 months.
20-40 eggs
To feed, these reptiles hunt, sometimes in groups, all types of prey such as invertebrates, reptiles, birds, nests and even mammals that can reach the size of a water buffalo. Exceptionally, they attack and devour human beings. They also consume carrion and dig graves for corpses.
They can live up to 30 years
Up to 3 meters long and about 90 kilos, the Komodo dragon is the largest of the living saurians and the top predator in its ecosystem.
Its powerful mouth has 60 serrated teeth measuring 2,5 centimeters in length. Their saliva contains blood and is an excellent breeding ground for highly pathogenic bacteria.
In addition, it has two poison glands in the jaw that secrete toxic proteins capable of delaying coagulation and producing muscle paralysis. One bite is enough to infect and weaken its prey, even causing its death.
Males fight violently among themselves to gain rights over females. The winner carries out violent courtship and mating. The fertilized female deposits around twenty eggs in a tunnel that she digs herself. The babies are born after about 8 months of incubation, and they lead an arboreal life in the first years to avoid being eaten by other dragons. They reach sexual maturity at five years old and can live up to thirty. Cases of asexual reproduction, called parthenogenesis, have been described in solitary females in zoos.
The Komodo dragon is the largest lizard in the world. They are also so large that in their natural habitat they have no natural predators when they reach their adult stage.
