Komodo National Park - Rinca Island

Komodo dragons are man-eaters! Rangers MUST be obeyed when they tell you where you can or cannot go. There are ample opportunities to see and photograph them in their truly wild habitat, with no need to interfere. One member of my group wanted to get us to club together to bribe a ranger to coax a dragon down onto the beach , just so that he could get what he thought would be a unique image. Fortunately everyone else refused, so it did not happen.

Komodo island, part of the Lesser Sunda chain of Indonesian islands, is the rugged habitat of the 3m-long Komodo dragon monitor lizard. Komodo National Park covers the entire region and is home to more than 4,000 dragons. Komodo dragons are the world's largest lizards. They are only found on 3 islands in Indonesia. They weigh around 90 kilos, and have loose skin so that they can gorge on a meal up to their own body weight. They love on other animals, mostly deer and buffalo, that also live wild on the same islands.
They can and do eat humans, so care is needed!!! They possess neurotoxins in their saliva, like fatally venomous snakes, and are considered more dangerous to humans than lions or tigers.

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