THE LARGEST LIZARD IN THE WORLD FROM INDONESIA

scales komodo resource ;Wikipedia.org

Komodo has a long tongue, yellow and forked. Komodo komodo males larger than females, with skin color from dark gray to brick red, while more female dragons green olives, and a small piece of yellow on the throat. Young Komodo dragons more colorful, with yellow, green and white on a black background.

Fisiology

Komodo does not have the sense of hearing, despite having the ear hole. This lizard is able to see as far as 300 m, but because the retina contains only cones, the animal is probably not so well seen in the darkness of night. Komodo is able to distinguish colors, but are not able to distinguish how stationary objects. 

Komodo dragon uses its tongue to detect taste and smell stimuli, like other reptiles, with the vomeronasal sensory utilizing Jacobson's organ, a sense that aids navigation in the dark. With the help of the wind and cocking his head to the right habits and to the left when walking, komodo can detect the presence of carrion as far as 4-9.5 kilometers. Nostrils komodo is not a tool of smell good because they do not have a diaphragm. These animals have no sense of taste in the tongue, there are few nerve endings of taste on the back of the throat. 

Their scales, some of which are reinforced with bone, have sensory plaques connected to nerves that facilitate its sense of touch. The scales around the ears, lips, chin, and soles of the feet may have three or more sensory plaques. 

Komodo dragons were thought to be deaf when a study whisper, voices, and shouts did not result in agitation (noise) in the wild komodo. This was refuted later when employees ZSL London Zoo, Joan Proctor trained lizards to dine out with his voice, even when he was not seen by the lizards.

Ecology, Behavior, and Life

Komodo dragons are found exclusively in Indonesia, on the island of Komodo, Flores and Rinca and several other islands in Nusa Tenggara. Live in dry open grassland, savanna and tropical forest at low elevations, this lizard likes hot and dry place. They are active during the day, although sometimes also active at night. Komodo dragons are largely solitary, coming together only to breed and eat. 

This picture shows, komodo that are climbing resource : Google Search

Large reptiles can sprint up to 20 miles per hour in short distances; swim very well and can dive as deep as 4.5 meters, and the clever use their claws to climb trees that strong. to catch prey that is out of reach, komodo may stand on its hind legs and use its tail as a support. With increasing age, komodo claws are used primarily as a weapon, because of its large size makes climbing impractical.
For shelter, komodo dig holes 1-3 meters wide with the front legs and strong claws Because of his body and the habit of sleeping in a hole, komodo can maintain body heat during the night and reduce time in the sun the next morning. Komodo generally hunt in the afternoon, but still the shade during the hottest part of the day. komodo hiding places are usually located in the dunes or hills with the sea breeze, open from vegetation, and here and there were scattered droppings. They also serve as a strategic location to ambush deer.

FEEDING BEHAVIOR

Young komodo eating the carcasses of buffaloes resource :http://www.einarsen.no/Indonesia/Flores/Flores.html

Komodo dragons are carnivores. Although they mostly eat carrion, studies show that they also hunt live prey with a stealthy approach followed by a sudden attack against the victim. When the prey arrives near a hidden komodo, animals be attacked on the underside or the throat. Komodo can find their prey using a keen sense of smell, which can locate a dead or dying animals at a distance of 9.5 kilometers.
Young Komodo dragons on Rinca eating a buffalo carcass.
Ancient reptiles ate by means tearing large chunks of flesh and then swallow her whole while the front legs hold the prey's body. For small-sized prey as large as sheep, the meat could be spent on one swallow. The contents of the stomach and intestines are typically avoided.
Red saliva and out in large quantities very helpful komodo in swallowing prey. However, ingestion still take a long time; 15-20 minutes to swallow a goat. Komodo sometimes attempt to speed up the process by ramming the carcass against a tree, in order to force it past the throat. And sometimes the efforts to suppress it so hard that it becomes a tree fall down.
To prevent itself from suffocating while swallowing, breathing through a small tube under the tongue that connects directly to the lungs. The jaws that can be developed freely, flexible skull, and stomach can be stretched remarkable allow komodo eat large prey, up to 80% of their own body weight in one meal.
After eating, komodo running shuffling his overfed seek sunlight for sunbathing and speed up the digestive process. Otherwise, the food can rot in the stomach and poison their own bodies. Due to slow metabolism, large dragons can survive by just eating 12 times a year, or roughly once a month. 

After digestion, komodo regurgitates a mass of horns, hair and teeth prey, in clumps of mucus mixed with the smell, which is known as gastric clumps of pellets. After the komodo swept his face to the ground or into the bush to clean up the remnants of the mucus, which suggests that the behavior of komodo, like humans, do not like the smell of her own spit.

reproduction

Females will lay their eggs in holes in the ground, scraping side of a hill or mound-legged bird nest charred orange that has been abandoned. Komodo prefer to keep their eggs in nests that have ditinggalkan.Sebuah Clutches contain an average of 20 eggs which will hatch after 7-8 months. The female lies on the eggs to incubate and protect them until they hatch around April, at the end of the rainy season when there are so many insects.

Hatching is an exhausting effort for the pups, who came out of the eggshell after tearing the egg tooth that after the job is completed. After cutting out the egg shell, the hatchlings may lie in their eggshells for hours before starting to dig out of the nest. When hatched, these babies can not how helpless and preyed upon by predators.

resource : reptilis.net

Young Komodo dragons spend their first few years in trees, where they are relatively safe from predators, including cannibalistic adults, which is about 10% of the diet of young dragons who successfully hunted. Dragons take three to five years to mature, and may live for 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 occur in some other reptile species such as Whiptail Lizards.

In late 2005, researchers from the University of Melbourne, Australia, concluded that Perentie lizard (Varanus giganteus) and the other dragons and lizards from the tribe Agamidae, is likely to have some sort of can. It was known that the injuries from the bite of these animals are very prone to infection because of the bacteria that live in the mouth of these lizards, but the researchers showed that the direct effect that appears at the bite injuries can be caused by the inclusion of a magnitude medium.

These researchers have observed the wounds in the hands of humans from lizard Varanus varius bite, V. Scalaris and komodo, and all showed a similar reaction: rapid swelling within minutes, localized disruption of blood clotting, pain that gripped up to the elbow , with some symptoms that last up to several hours later.

A gland that can contain highly toxic has been successfully retrieved from the mouth of a dragon at the Singapore Zoo, and to convince the researchers would be content that belongs to komodo.

In addition it contains can, Komodo dragon saliva also has a variety of deadly bacteria in it; more than 28 Gram-negative and Gram-positive 29 has been isolated from saliva. These bacteria cause septicemia in their victim. If the initial bite does not kill the prey and the prey can escape, generally hapless prey will die within a week of infection.

The most deadly bacteria in Komodo dragon saliva appears bacterium Pasteurella multocida is a very deadly; known through experiments with laboratory rats. Because the Komodo dragon appears immune to its own microbes, much research was done to find antibacterial molecules in the hope it can be used for human treatment.