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Copious amounts of red saliva the Komodo dragons produce help to lubricate the food, but swallowing is still a long process (15–20 minutes to swallow a goat). A Komodo dragon may attempt to speed up the process by ramming the carcass against a tree to force it down its throat, sometimes ramming so forcefully that the tree is knocked down. [43]
It is particularly notable as the habitat of the Komodo dragon, the largest lizard on Earth, which is named after the island. Komodo Island has a surface area of 291 square kilometres, and had a human population of about 1,800 in 2020. Komodo is part of the Lesser Sunda chain of islands and forms part of the Komodo National Park.
The Komodo Biosphere Reserve and National Park is situated between Flores and Sumbawa in Indonesia. It is renowned for its population of about 5,000 giant lizards, called 'Komodo dragons' (Varanus komodoensis). They exist nowhere else in the world and are of significant interest to scientists studying the theory of evolution. [1]
Komodo National Park featured on the reverse of the 50,000 rupiah banknote. The island of Padar and part of Rinca were established as nature reserves in 1938. [3]Komodo Island was declared a nature reserve in 1965, [4] and in January 1977 as a biosphere reserve under the UNESCO Man and Biosphere Reserve Programme.
The Komodo dragon is an example of island gigantism. After immigration, birds, and some reptiles or mammals, tend to become larger and predatory, [6] showing relaxed intraspecific competition. [7] For mammals, small species will increase in size and large species will decrease in size. [8]
The Varanidae are a family of lizards in the superfamily Varanoidea and order Anguimorpha.The family, a group of carnivorous and frugivorous lizards, [1] includes the living genus Varanus and a number of extinct genera more closely related to Varanus than to the earless monitor lizard (Lanthanotus). [2]
Like the Komodo dragon, the water monitor will often eat carrion, [2] [17] or rotten flesh. By eating this decaying flesh, the lizard provides benefits to the ecosystem by removing infectious elements, cleaning the environment. [18] They have a keen sense of smell and can smell a carcass from far away.
The ecosystem approach is a conceptual framework for resolving ecosystem issues. The idea is to protect and manage the environment through the use of scientific reasoning . [ 1 ] Another point of the ecosystem approach is preserving the Earth and its inhabitants from potential harm or permanent damage to the planet itself.