When it comes to the Komodo dragon, everyone's impression of it is cold-blooded terror, and it is the number one killer in nature. Our earliest understanding of it also comes from the introduction of various documentaries, but due to the filming method of the documentary and the lack of research in the early years, many of us have a wrong understanding of the Komodo dragon.
Tips: Komodo dragons, evolved from ancient monitor lizards more than 4 million years ago, are widely distributed in the archipelagos of Australia and Indonesia, but today, only the Indonesian archipelago still has the habitat of Komodo dragons, and the current number is only about 5700, which is one of the endangered creatures.
For example, it relies on deadly bacteria in the saliva to hunt, and the body length can grow to 3 to 4 meters, which is actually wrong. In this issue, we will talk about the real strength of the Komodo dragon.
Komodo dragon
Komodo dragons, also known as Komodo dragons, are the largest lizards in the existing monitor lizard family. In addition to wild monitor lizard activities such as Flores Island, Rinca Island, and Motang Island, scientists have also established a national park on Komodo Island to ensure that Komodo dragons can thrive.
Tips: Komodo Island has a very romantic pink beach, which is formed by a large amount of red coral on the seabed being crushed by the seawater and turned into a fine powder, which is integrated with the fine white sand on the shore.
The Komodo monitor lizard was discovered probably in 1910. At first, people thought it was a terrestrial crocodile, so it was called "dry crocodile", but in fact it was very watery and just liked to survive in a dry and hot environment. And unlike crocodiles that eat a meal and lie down for a year, Komodo dragons are very active and can eat every day as long as there is enough food. As long as it can catch something, the Komodo dragon will try to bite it. Other reptiles, birds, monkeys, deer, wild boar, goats and buffalo are within the range of komodo dragons. Cannibalism also occurs when hungry, and in rare cases, humans are attacked.
How big is the Komodo dragon?
In order to create gimmicks to increase ratings, documentaries usually deliberately create a huge body effect when shooting this giant lizard. This way of shooting is very simple, as long as the lens is lowered, often shoot the elevation angle shot, even the worm can shoot the effect of monster invasion. Although the Komodo dragon is the largest among lizards, it is small compared to other large animals. There are rumors that komodo dragons are 3 to 4 meters long, which is actually a false statement.
Tips: Lizard lizard, commonly known as the "four-legged snake" or "snake aunt", is distributed all over the world. It belongs to the cold-blooded reptiles, which have a wide variety of species, and there are about 3,000 species distributed on the earth, and there are more than 150 species known in China. It is mostly distributed in the tropical and subtropical regions.
According to the statistics of Komodo National Park, the average body length of male Komodo monitor lizards is 2.59 meters, while the female is 2.29 meters. If you don't count its tail, only the length from the snout to the anus is counted, which is about 92 to 86 centimeters, so the calculation is because it is the size of its body shape, mainly the length of the body, not the tail length. That is to say, the Komodo dragon looks large, but it is actually a relatively slender tail, accounting for more than half of the total length.
And the weight is actually not much different from ours. A male Komodo monitor lizard weighs about 79 to 91 kilograms, while the female weighs 68 to 73 kilograms. As for the weight of 166 kilograms, it is its satiety state, and the real fasting state is actually about 80 kilograms. It can be seen how edible the Komodo dragon is.
Tips: There are documentaries that mention that Komodo dragons can grow up to 3.1 meters and weigh 166 kilograms, just a gimmick. In the records of the Komodo dragon, there is indeed a line that grows to 3.13 meters, but it is only a case and cannot explain the problem.
The average length and weight mentioned above are all data on Komodo dragons raised in captivity, because some people take care of food and clothing, so their body size is larger than in the wild. If it is in the wild, the average body length of the Komodo giant is actually about 2.4 meters, which is far from the huge we remember.
Of course, the main factor affecting the length of the Komodo dragon is not only diet, but also lifespan, because its growth and development throughout life, so age is the key to determining body shape. As an oviparous creature, the juveniles of the Komodo dragon are very petite, even inferior to the newly hatched baby crocodiles. They usually hide in the corner to prevent being eaten by adult monitor lizards. So in the wild, it is difficult to find small monitor lizards.
Tips: Monitor lizards are sexually mature for 3-5 years, mating between May and August and laying eggs in September. Newly mature females can only lay 4-6 eggs, laying every 2-3 days, with an average of 20 eggs in a clutch, and the incubation period is 7 months.
The lifespan of komodo dragons can reach 60 years, and the fastest growth rate is before 25 years old, when Komodo dragons can grow to more than 2 meters, and females are about 2 meters. However, due to the cruel pressure of life, female Komodo dragons usually do not live to be 30 years old, so they are much smaller than males. The monitor lizard that lives to be 60 years old may only be more than 3 meters long. From this perspective, komodo megafauna really can't be compared to large carnivores like lion crocodiles.
Tips: Cape Lion Panthera leo melanochaitus, a modern extinct subspecies of lion, also known as the Cape lion, became extinct in the wild in the 19th century, but some zoos still have their descendants, including mestizo descendants.
Let's make a simple comparison to understand. In the wild, the average body length (including tail) of African male lions can reach 3.2 meters, and the weight of fasting is 240 kg, which is the average data of lions. The largest of the modern lions is the extinct Cape Lion, which disappeared in the 19th century, reaching a length of 3.34 meters and weighing an estimated weight of about 187 kilograms. The weight here is on the small side because the data is based on the weight of the skeleton.
The world's largest crocodile is the bay crocodile, which is also the largest reptile. Its body length generally does not exceed 5 meters, and its weight can reach one ton. That is to say, from the analysis of body size alone, the monitor lizard and the lion crocodile fight, just like the lightweight challenge heavyweight players, no drama, and it is not too much to describe it with the word hanging.
Tips: The bay crocodile, like other crocodiles, belongs to the dinosaur family. From more than 200 million years ago on Earth until now, the appearance of the bay crocodile has not changed significantly. A male bay crocodile has been recorded to be 7 meters long and weigh around 1600 kilograms.
Of course, to be fair, we should also count the komodo dragon as poisonous. So the question is, how toxic is the Komodo dragon?
How toxic are Komodo dragons?
In the 1980s, some studies proved that because Komodo dragons like to eat scavengers, many deadly bacteria grew in the mouth and saliva, which could cause prey to infect and die of wounds. This narrative was used in many early documentaries and became Komodo's most daunting skill. Some documentaries even mention that after a Komodo dragon sneaks up on a buffalo, it tracks for a whole week to wait for the buffalo to die of infection. Is this true?
Tips: Aegypius monachus the vulture is a large bird of prey that feeds on the carcasses of large animals, often soaring over open and more exposed mountains and plains to peep at animal carcasses.
In fact, it's a rumor that Komodo dragons don't track their prey for long. There are three reasons for this.
First, komodo dragons have a very fast metabolism, and long-term tracking will starve themselves to death. As mentioned above, komodo dragons weigh only more than 80 kilograms on an empty stomach, and can reach more than 160 kilograms when eaten. Its food intake is very amazing, as long as it can be caught by the absolute comers do not refuse. In order not to go hungry, it will try its best to hunt every day, and will not starve to track a prey with perseverance.
Tips: Metabolism includes two aspects: substance metabolism and energy metabolism. Metabolism is made up of two opposite and simultaneous processes of assimilation and alienation.
Second, Komodo dragons do not have the ability to track their prey. In some popular science texts or documentaries, it will be mentioned that komodo dragons track their prey with their tongues like snakes, tracking animals that have been bitten by themselves through a developed sense of smell, and following them unhurriedly. This statement is simply more exaggerated than a fantasy novel. The Komodo dragon has a field of vision of about 300 meters, so finding food mainly relies on the sense of smell. But the smell it could trace was that of a dead corpse that smelled of decay.
Tips: Smell is a feeling. It is involved by two sensory systems, the olfactory nervous system and the nasal trigeminal nervous system. The senses of smell and taste integrate and interact with each other. Smell is a sense of distance, and taste is a sense of proximity.
Its saliva does contain a lot of deadly bacteria that can spread sepsis, cholera, tetanus, dysentery, plague and other diseases, and after being bitten, animals usually die of wound infection. But Komodo really didn't have the heart to follow, only on the way to foraging, smelling the smell of decay, only to find the prey that had been bitten by himself. Moreover, it is often many monitor lizards that are attracted by the taste. It can be seen that this belongs to the unintentional willow shading. As animals that forage every day, the Komodo dragon wants to kill in one move, not to try their luck.
Tips: Bacteria, refers to one of the main taxa of organisms, belonging to the bacterial domain. It is also the most abundant of all living things, with an estimated total of about 5×10^30. The shape of bacteria is quite diverse, mainly spherical, rod-shaped, and spiral-shaped.
Third, the bacteria in the mouth of the Komodo dragon are not as terrible as described in the documentary. As mentioned above, the bacteria in its saliva come from decomposing corpses. Just as eating without brushing teeth results in the growth of oral bacteria, the extremely immune Komodo dragon can allow deadly bacteria to breed in the mouth, but they are not symbiotic. How many bacteria there are, how strong, depends entirely on whether the new ones eaten at the last meal are fresh or not. Therefore, relying on bacteria to hunt is actually not reliable.
Tips: Natural immunity, also known as innate immunity, is the immunity that people are born with. Acquired immunity, also known as acquired immunity, is naturally obtained in people's lives or obtained through vaccination, produced by antibodies and proteins in the blood, which can fight against foreign substances in the body.
More favorable evidence comes from a 2009 paper published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Dr. Brian Fry, a venom expert at the University of Melbourne in Australia, found that the Komodo dragon still had two venom glands in its mouth through MRI scans. These venom glands release substances with anticoagulant effects, which cause the blood of the prey to fail to coagulate, the blood vessels to expand, the blood pressure of the heart to decrease, and then the muscles are paralyzed, the consciousness is lost, and finally the bleeding is excessive and death. This discovery makes the Komodo dragon the largest venomous animal in the world. However, scholars have different views on how strong the venom is, because it does not have teeth that can inject venom like a venomous snake.
Tips: Snake venom is a liquid secreted by venomous snakes from their venom glands, and the main ingredient is a toxic protein. The composition of snake venom is very complex, and the toxicity, pharmacology and toxicological effects of different snake venoms have their own characteristics.
The Como monitor lizard has more than 60 barb-shaped teeth, about 2.5 centimeters long, and is mainly injured by biting. Its secretion of poisonous glands is discharged between the teeth, and when something in the mouth compresses the poisonous glands, it will be secreted into the mouth and contaminated into the torn flesh. Compared to the method of injecting venom by venomous snakes, the venom use of Komodo dragons is very inefficient. The prey in hand was not so much poisoned by venom as it was bitten by Komodo dragons. Unlike snakes, Komodo dragons do not need efficient neurotoxoids to kill their prey, in fact, in terms of its living environment, just by biting, you can quickly put down prey that is the same size as itself.
How fierce are the Komodo dragons?
In fact, the Komodo dragon hunts in a similar way to lions, relying on strength to win. Unlike the traditional image of slow action, it is very active when hunting, and can run and chase in a short time, reaching a speed of 30 kilometers per hour. Once the prey is bitten, the sharp teeth can pierce the flesh, leaving clear bite marks on the bones.
Tips: The Nile crocodile is the most bite-forced animal in the world, with a bite force of more than 2260 kilograms and the ability to shred any animal. Nile crocodiles feed mainly on birds, animals and reptiles and are highly aggressive, with many attacks on humans.
When hunting deer, Komodo dragons will first bite the limbs of their prey, use brute force to put it directly, then tear and twist their limbs, and then attack the fragile abdomen and neck, resulting in excessive blood loss and collapse to the ground, the whole process takes only tens of seconds. Often, before the prey has yet to breathe, Komodo has already begun to feast. This method can even overturn a wild boar, which shows how explosive the explosive force is.
epilogue
At this point, we have roughly sorted out the real image of the Komodo dragon. It's not as big as we thought, and it's not even as big as the pigs we raise. And hunting is mostly about explosive power, not bacteria and venom that have been exaggerated in previous documentaries.
Tips: The lion is a large cat that lives in Africa and Asia, and is the largest cat with the largest average weight in existence. The lion is known as the "King of the Prairie" and is The Top Cat Carnivore in Africa.
Many documentaries do not care how fierce they usually hunt when shooting Komodo dragons, but put the camera on some rare scenes, such as the escaped prey is eventually poisoned, and the smelling monitor lizards are rushed up. Compared to venomous snakes, its bacteria and venom are not so deadly. At this time, we compare it with the top predators such as lion crocodiles, although it may be a lose-lose situation in the real fight, but in terms of strength and explosiveness, the first to die must be the Komodo dragon.