Komodo dragon , or a full-called Komodo dragons ( Varanus komodoensis, is a species of lizard in the world who live on the island of Komodo , Rinca , Flores , Gili Motang , and Gili Dasami in Nusa Tenggara is the native Komodo Komodo island is also called by local names ora.
Including family members monitor lizards Varanidae , and klad Toxicofera , dragons are the largest lizards in the world, with an average length of 2-3 meters . Large size is associated with symptoms of island gigantism , the tendency for body meraksasanya certain animals that live in small island linked to the absence of mammalian carnivores on the island where dragons live, and the rate of metabolism of small dragons. Due to large body, these lizards occupy the position of predator peaks that dominate the ecosystems where he lived.
Komodo dragons are found by western researchers in 1910. Her body is great and terrible reputation makes them popular in zoos. Dragons in the wild habitat has been shrinking due to human activities and therefore the IUCN species include the Komodo dragon as vulnerable to extinction. These large lizards are protected under Indonesian law and a national park , namely Komodo National Park , established to protect them.
Anatomy and Morphology
In the wild, adult Komodo dragon usually has a mass of about 70 kilograms, but the dragons are kept in captivity often have a greater body weight. Wild specimens have the largest ever of 3:13 meters long and weighing about 166 kilograms, including the weight of undigested food in his stomach. Although recorded as the largest lizard the Komodo dragon is still alive, but not the longest. This reputation is held by the Papua monitor lizards ( Varanus salvadorii ). dragons have the same tail length with his body, and about 60 pieces of jagged sharp teeth along about 2.5 cm , which is often replaced. Saliva dragons are often mixed with a little blood because of his teeth almost completely covered by gingival tissue and the tissue is torn during the meal. This condition creates an ideal environment for the growth of bacteria that live off in their mouths. The Komodo has a long tongue, yellow and forked. Komodo dragons male larger than females, with skin color from dark gray to brick red, while more female dragons are green olives, and a small piece of yellow on the throat. Young dragons more colorful, with yellow, green and white on a black background.
Physiology
Komodo has no sense of hearing, despite having the ear hole. The Komodo is able to see as far as 300 m, but because the retina has only cone cells , these animals seem not so good to see in the darkness of night. Komodo dragons are able to distinguish colors but not much ability to distinguish between objects that do not move. The Komodo dragon uses his tongue to detect taste and smell stimuli , like other reptiles, with a sense of vomeronasal use Jacobson's organ , an ability that can help navigation in the dark. With the help of wind and habits cocked his head to the right and left when walking, dragons can detect the presence of carrion as far as 4-9.5 miles. dragons nostrils smell is not a good tool because they do not have the midriff . This animal has no sense of taste on her tongue, there are few nerve endings of taste in the back of the throat.
Ecology, behavior and way of life
Komodo dragons are naturally found only in Indonesia, on Komodo, Flores and Rinca and several other islands in Nusa Tenggara . Life in the open dry grasslands, savannas and tropical forests at low altitude, these lizards like the place is hot and dry. They are active during the day, although sometimes also active at night. Komodo dragons are solitary animals, gathered together only at meals and breed. These great reptiles could run faster to 20 miles per hour at short distances, swim very well and can dive as deep as 4.5 meters; as well as clever climb trees using their strong claws. To catch prey that are beyond its reach, the Komodo dragon may stand on its hind legs and uses its tail for support. With increasing age, more dragons using his claws as weapons, because of its large size trouble climbing trees.
For shelter, dragons dig holes 1-3 meters wide with front legs and strong claws. Because of his body and the habit of sleeping in the hole, the Komodo dragon can maintain body heat during the night and reduce the time soaking up the next morning. The Komodo dragon is generally hunt during the day until late afternoon, but still take shelter during the hottest part of the day. dragons hiding places are usually located in the dunes or hills with the sea breeze, is open from vegetation , and here and there animal feces scattered inhabitants. This place is generally also a strategic location to ambush deer .
Komodo dragon scales, some of which are reinforced with bone, have the sensors connected to nerves that facilitate excitatory touch. The scales around the ears, lips, chin, and soles of the feet have three or more sensory stimulation.
Komodo never considered deaf when research found that the whisper, the voice rising and shouting did not result in agitation (noise) in the wild dragons. This was refuted later when employees ZSL London Zoo , Joan Proctor trained lizards to come out to eat with his voice, even when he is not seen by the lizards.
Behavior eat
Komodo is an animal carnivores . Although they eat mostly carrion, showed that they also hunt live prey by sneaking off followed by a sudden attack against the victim. When prey comes near the hiding place of dragons, the animals immediately attacked him on the bottom side of the body or throat. Park to find their prey using a keen sense of smell, which can find the animal dead or dying at a distance of up to 9.5 kilometers.
These ancient reptiles ate in a way to rip big chunks of meat and then swallow it round front leg while holding the body of its prey. For small prey up for goats , their meat can be spent once swallow. Stomach contents of prey in the form of plants normally left untouched. Saliva redness and come out in large quantities very helpful dragons in swallowing prey. However, the process still takes time to swallow a long, 15-20 minutes is required to swallow a goat. Komodo dragons are sometimes trying to speed up the process of swallowing it by emphasizing carrion prey into a tree , so that carcasses can be entered through the throat. And sometimes all efforts to suppress it so hard that the tree be collapsed. In order to avoid so as not to choke when swallowing, dragons breathe through a small channel under the tongue, which relate directly to his lungs . The jaws that can be developed freely, his skull is pliable and can stomach the extraordinary stretchy allows dragons eat large prey, up to 80% of its own body weight in one meal. After the meal, the stuffed dragons dragged himself looking sunshine for sunbathing and speed up the process of digestion. If not, the food can rot in his stomach and poison their own bodies. Because metabolism is slow, big dragons can survive by just eating 12 times a year or approximately once a month. After the meat undigested prey, dragons spewing the remains of horns, hair and teeth its prey, in clumps of mucus mixed with the smell foul, which clumps known as gastric pellets . After that dragons brushed his face to the ground or into the bushes to clean up the remnants of mucus that is still attached; behavior suggests that dragons, like humans, not like the smell of his own spittle.
Can and bacteria
In late 2005, researchers from the University of Melbourne, Australia , concluded that Perentie lizard ( Varanus giganteus ) and other lizards, monitor lizards, and lizards from the tribe Agamidae, probably have some sort of can . As long as it is known that injuries from the bite of these animals are very prone to infection because of bacteria that live in the mouth of these lizards, but the researchers suggest that the direct effect that appears in the bite wounds were caused by the entry can be powered medium. These researchers have observed the wounds in the hands of humans from the bite lizard Varanus varius , V. scalaris and dragons, and all showed a similar reaction: rapid swelling within minutes, local disturbances in blood clotting, pain that gripped up to the elbow, with some symptoms that last up to several hours later. A gland which can contain which is very poisonous been successfully retrieved from the mouth of a Komodo dragon at the Singapore Zoo , and convince the researchers would be content that belongs to the Komodo dragon.
In addition to containing can, komodo dragons saliva also has a variety of bacterial kill in it; more than 28 bacterial Gram-negative and 29 Gram-positive have been isolated from this saliva. The bacteria that cause septicemia in their victims; if the dragons bite not directly kill prey and prey that can escape, generally these pesky prey will die within one week due to infection. The most deadly bacteria in Komodo dragon saliva is probably bacteria Pasteurella multocida is very deadly; known through experiments with laboratory mice. Because the Komodo dragon appears immune to its own microbes, much research done to look for the antibacterial molecule in the hope that can be used for human treatment.
The mating season occurs between May and August , and eggs laid in September. During this period, male dragons battle to defend the females and territory by way of "grappling" with another male standing on his hind legs. Komodo the loser will fall and the "locked" to the ground. Both male Komodo dragon that can vomit or defecate when preparing for battle. The winner will fight long tongue flicked on the female body to see the female acceptance. The female Komodo dragons are antagonistic and resist with their claws and teeth during the early phase pairs. Furthermore, males have to fully control the female during intercourse so as not to hurt. Other behaviors that are shown during this process is the male rubbing their chins on the female, hard on the back scratching and licking. copulation occurs when males enter one hemipenisnya into the female cloaca. The Komodo dragon can be monogamus and form a "pair , "a rare trait for a lizard.
Females will lay their eggs on the ground hole, scraping the cliff of the hill or mound nests burnt-orange legs that have been abandoned. Komodo would prefer to keep their eggs in nests that had been abandoned. An average dragons nest contained 20 eggs that will hatch after 7-8 months. Females lay on the eggs to incubate and protect it until hatch in the vicinity of the month April , at the end of the rainy season when there are so many insects.
Business incubation process is exhausting for children dragons, which came out of the egg shell after tore with egg tooth to be dated after the heavy work is completed. After successfully tore eggshells, the baby dragons to lay their eggs in the shell for a few hours before starting to dig out their nests. When hatched, the babies are not just how helpless and can be eaten by predators.
Young Komodo dragons spend their first years on the tree, where they are relatively safe from predators, including adult dragons are cannibals, which is about 10% of food is a young iguana iguana-hunted successfully. Komodo takes three to five years to mature, and can live more than 50 years.
In addition to the normal reproductive process, there are several examples of cases of female dragons to produce children without the presence of males ( parthenogenesis ), a phenomenon also known to appear in several other reptile species such as Cnemidophorus .
Sungai, a Komodo dragon at London Zoo , has been laying eggs in early 2006 after the split of males for more than two years. Scientists initially thought that these dragons can store sperm for some time the result of mating with a male Komodo dragon at the previous time, an adaptation known as superfekundasi .
On 20 December 2006 , it was reported that Flora, the Komodo dragon living in Chester Zoo , UK is the second dragons are known to produce eggs without fertilization (conception of marriage): he took out 11 eggs, and 7 of them managed to hatch. Researchers from the University of Liverpool in northern England perform genetic tests on three eggs that failed to hatch after moved into the incubator, and proved that Flora did not have physical contact with male dragons. After this surprising finding, and testing conducted on the eggs of the River and found that the eggs and even then produced without fertilization from the outside.
Komodo has a sex determination system of chromosomal ZW , not the XY sex determination system . Flora of androgynous male offspring, indicating the occurrence of several things. Flora is that the eggs are not fertilized are haploid at first and then doubling the chromosomes themselves become diploid , and that he did not produce diploid eggs, as can occur if one-reduction division process of meiosis in the ovaries fail. When a female Komodo dragon (a ZW sex chromosomes) to produce the child in this way, he passed only one of the pairs of chromosomes that dipunyainya, including one of two sex chromosomes. A single set of chromosomes is then duplicated in the egg, which is growing at a partenogenetika. Eggs that received Z chromosome would be a ZZ (male), and who receive W chromosome will become WW and fail to develop.
Suspected that this kind of reproductive adaptation allows an animal to enter a female ecological niches isolated (as islands) and then by parthenogenesis produce male offspring. Through marriage with his son on the next time these animals to form a population that reproduce sexually, being able to produce male and female offspring. Although these adaptations are beneficial, the zoo needs to be alert because parthenogenesis may be able to reduce genetic diversity.
On January 31, 2008, Sedgwick County Zoo in Wichita, Kansas became the zoo who first documented parthenogenesis in Komodo dragons in America. The zoo has two adult female Komodo dragon, which is one of them produced 17 eggs in 19 to 20 May 2007. Only two eggs are incubated and hatched because the issue of space availability; the first hatched on January 31, 2008, followed by the second on February 1. Both children were androgynous male Komodo dragon.
The development started with Komodo evolution clan Varanus , which appeared in Asia about 40 million years ago and then migrated to Australia . About 15 million years ago, meeting the continental shelf of Australia and Southeast Asia allows the lizard to move toward the area known as Indonesia now. Komodo dragons are believed to have evolved from ancestors of Australian at about 4 million years ago, and expanded the territory spreading as far east Timor . Changes in sea-surface height changes since Glacial period has made the dragons questionnaire was limited to the current distribution area.
In the collection, most large-sized Komodo dragons usually eat first, followed by smaller according to hierarchy . Showed the greatest male dominance through body language and desisannya; are greeted with the same language by male-male other smaller ones to show its recognition of that power. Komodo dragons are the same size, may be fighting pitted forces, by a kind of wrestling monitor lizards, until one of them to admit defeat and retreat, although sometimes the loser may have been killed in a fight and devoured by the winner.
Komodo dragons prey very varied, covering a variety of invertebrates , other reptiles (including smaller-bodied dragons), birds and their eggs, mammals small, monkeys , wild pigs , goats , deer , horses , and buffalo . Young dragons eat insects , eggs, lizards , and small mammals. Sometimes dragons are also prey on humans and the corpses were exhumed from a shallow grave pit. This habit causes Komodo islanders avoid sandy ground and choose burying the corpse in clay, and covered it with stones so as not to dig dragons. There is also a suspect that dragons evolve to eat pygmy elephants Stegodon who ever lived on Flores . Komodo also been observed when the startling and scare the deer a female who was pregnant, hoping for a miscarriage and the fetus can be eaten carcass, a behavior that is also found in large predators in Africa .
Because no midriff , dragons can not breathe in water or licking water to drink (like cats ). Instead, the dragons 'scoop' the water with the rest of his mouth, then lifted his head for the water to flow into his stomach.
Discovery
Komodo was first documented by Europeans in 1910. His name was expanded after 1912, when Peter Ouwens, director of the Zoological Museum at Bogor , published a paper about the dragons after receiving the photo and the skin of this reptile. Later, the Komodo dragon is the driving factor to do an expedition to Komodo Island by W. Douglas Burden in 1926. After returning with 12 preserved specimens and 2 tails dragons live, this expedition provided the inspiration for the movie King Kong in 1933. W. Douglas Burden is the one who first gave the name "Komodo dragon" to this animal. Three of the specimens obtained dragons reshaped into animals on display and up to now are still stored at the American Museum of Natural History .
Research
The Dutch, realizing this reduction in the number of animals in the wild, forbidding hunting dragons and limit the number of animals taken for scientific research. Komodo Expedition halted during World War II , and not resumed until the 1950s and '60an when done studies on feeding behavior, reproduction and body temperature dragons. In those years, an expedition was designed to examine the other dragons in the long term. This task fell to the Auffenberg family, who then lived for 11 months on the island of Komodo in 1969. During that time, Walter Auffenberg and Son writer as his assistant, managed to capture and mark more than 50 fish dragons. The results of this expedition was very influential on increasing breeding dragons. subsequent studies then provide a better picture brighter and clear about the nature of dragons, that biologists such as Claudio Ciofi can resume a more in-depth study.
Conservation
Komodo dragons are the species vulnerable to extinction, and categorized as Vulnerable species on the list IUCN Red List . Around 4000-5000 dragons tail is estimated to still live in the wild. This population is limited spread in the islands of Rinca (1,300 head), Gili Motang (100), Gili Dasami (100), Komodo (1,700), and Flores (probably about 2,000 in number). However, there are concerns about population This is because estimated from whom only 350 females to stay productive and can breed. Based on these concerns, in 1980 the Government of Indonesia approved the establishment of the Park to protect the Komodo dragon populations and ecosystems in several islands including Komodo, Rinca, and Padar.
Later it provided for the Nature Reserve and Wolo Tado Wae Wuul on the island of Flores to help conservation of dragons. [44] But on the other hand, there is evidence which shows that the Komodo dragon, at least in part, been accustomed to human presence. Komodo dragons are accustomed-fed cattle carcasses, as an attraction to draw tourists to visit several locations.
Activity volcanism , earthquakes, destruction of habitat, fire (dragons on Padar population is almost extinct because of natural fires, reduced prey, increased tourism, and poaching, all contribute to the status of vulnerable that carried dragons. CITES ( the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species ) has determined that the trade dragons, skin, and other products from these animals is illegal.
Although rare, Komodo dragons are known to kill humans. On June 4, 2007, a Komodo dragon is known to attack a boy aged eight years. This child later died from severe bleeding from his wounds. This is the first record of a fatal attack in the last 33 years.
Captive breeding
Komodo dragons have long since become an interesting spectacle at various zoos , mainly because of body size and reputation that made him so popular. Yet these animals rarely possess the zoo, because dragons are vulnerable to infection and disease caused by parasites, and not easy to breed.
Komodo dragons are first exhibited at the Smithsonian Zoo in 1934, but these animals survived only for two years. Efforts to preserve these reptiles continue, but the age of this animal in tangkaran not too long, an average of only 5 years at the zoo. Research conducted by Walter Auffenberg above, the results were published as a book The Behavioral Ecology of the Komodo Monitor , ultimately allowing the maintenance and breeding of this endangered species in captivity.
It has been observed that many individuals are kept dragons show a benign behavior for a certain period. It was reported on numerous times events, that the handlers managed to bring out the dragons from their enclosures to interact with visitors, including children among them, without any consequences which endanger visitors. [48] [49] Komodo dragons seem to recognize the people one by one. Ruston Hartdegen of Zoos Dallas reported that komodo dragons dipeliharanya-react differently when faced with a handler who usually take care of, with another handler who more or less already known, or with a handler who is not yet known.
Research on domesticated dragons prove that these animals love to play. A study of dragons who would push a shovel left by his keeper, clearly shows that the animal is attracted to shovel the sound generated when shifted along the rocky surface. A young female dragon at the National Zoo in Washington, DC happy to reach out and shake various objects including statues, beverage cans, plastic circle, and blankets. Komodo is also pleased to enter his head stuffed into boxes, shoes, and various other objects. Komodo is not can not distinguish objects mentioned with food, he'd eat it if things had been smeared with the blood of rats. Behavior of this play can be compared with the behavior of mammalian play.
Another note about the pleasure of playing dragons obtained from the University of Tennessee . A young dragon named "Kraken" playing with plastic bracelets, shoes, buckets, and cans, by pushing, hitting hit her, and took it with her mouth. Kraken treat objects that are different from what the food, push-Gordon Burghardt-researchers conclude that these animals have dispelled the notion that such a game is "motivated predatory behavior-predation".
Dragons that seem benign can behave aggressively even in unexpected ways, especially if its territory is violated by someone who did not know. In June 2001, a Komodo dragon attacks causing serious injury to Phil Bronstein - Daily executive editor of the San Francisco Chronicle and the former husband Sharon Stone , a famous American actress - when she entered the animal's cage at the invitation of his keeper. Bronstein was bitten by a Komodo dragon in her bare feet, after the handler told him to open his white shoes, which is feared could attract the attention of the dragons. Although he managed to escape, but he needs surgery to reconnect the tendon muscles are injured.
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