Impact!

The Komodo dragon is endangered. This reptile is threatened because people are chopping down their habitat and are hunted, in my opinion, for no practical use. A Komodo Dragon is a big lizard that can get up to 10 feet long and weighs up to 366 pounds. The Komodo dragon has 60 teeth in all, 30 teeth on the bottom and 30 teeth on top. They have a split tongue like snakes do. They can smell their prey for miles away.

The Komodo Dragon lives on four small islands, one of which is Komodo, in the Indonesia Islands. Indonesia is an island chain above Australia and below Thailand. Komodo Dragons are the biggest lizards in the world.  They have been endangered since about 1915

The Komodo Dragon is a carnivore. A carnivore is an animal which only eats meat. First the Komodo Dragon will hunt their prey. They will wait for hours until a prey animal comes by, and then they will spring into action. They usually miss but sometimes bite the animal and their saliva gets into their blood stream and will kill the prey in a couple of days. The saliva is poisonous because it contains deadly bacteria. They will track it down and eat it. Komodo dragons have even been known to dig up graves for food.
Komodo dragons are cannibalistic which means they can also eat each other.

They are the only meat eaters on the islands where they live, other than humans. All the other animals are herbivores. The poisonous saliva along with the very sharp teeth help the dragons get their prey.
When a Komodo dragon is born, they climb up into a tree because their parents might eat them. They stay up in the trees eating small mammals, young birds, and insects. When they get older and are big guys, they come down.

Hunters have been killing the Komodo dragons because these giant lizards sometimes kill farm animals. The farmers have no use for the dragons but feel a need to kill them to protect the farm animals.

The destruction of the habitat is fatal to the Komodo dragon. Even if they could dig a hole and stay in there, it will not be able to protect them. If trees are cut down the young komodo will not have a safe place to be protected from their cannibalistic parents.

There are many ways we can help Komodo Dragons:

1. Adopt a Komodo dragon. This will help because then the government protects it.

2. Donate to places that support Komodo Dragons.

3. Cut down fewer trees. This helps the Komodo Dragons stay safe. Trees are also good for other endangered species like the snow leopard, dumiros boa, peregrine falcon, Ethiopian wolf, loggerhead turtle and the timber wolf.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, February 17th, 2009 at 8:40 pmand is filed under Articles. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.