DIET:
The Komodo is carnivorous and cannibalistic and it has a prodigious appetite. They regularly kill prey as large as pigs and small deer, and have been known to bring down an adult water buffalo. They are opportunistic feeders and will eat anything they can overpower including small dragons and small or injured humans (dragons make up to 10% of their diet).
An eyewitness account revealed that a 101 lb (46 kg.) dragon ate a 90 lb. (41 kg.) pig in 20 minutes. As a comparison, a 100 lb. person would have to eat 320 quarter pound hamburgers in less than 20 minutes to keep up with the dragon.
In the zoo, the Komodo dragons are fed previously frozen rats.
REPRODUCTION and GROWTH:
The life expectancy of a Komodo is between 20 to 40 years. As noted above, Komodo dragons are generally solitary animals, except during the breeding season.
The male Komodo dragon presses his snout to the female's body, and flicks her with his long, forked tongue to obtain chemical information about her receptivity. He then scratches her back with his long claws, making a ratchet-like noise. If unreceptive, she raises and inflates her neck and hisses loudly.
The female wild dragons will utilize the nest mound of a brush turkey in which she will lay a clutch of up to 30 eggs. Hatchlings are about 15 inches (40 centimeters) and weigh 3.5 ounces (100 g.).
Juveniles are multi-hued, (yellow, green, brown and gray); with a speckled and banded skin. Adult colors vary from earthen red to slate gray and black.
STATUS:
Endangered: The largest threat is volcanic activity, fire and subsequent loss of its prey base. Currently habitat alteration , poaching of prey species and tourism may have the most pronounced effect. Commercial trade in specimens or skins is illegal under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES).
Wild Population: 3,000 to 5,000.
<<<---Back
The Komodo is carnivorous and cannibalistic and it has a prodigious appetite. They regularly kill prey as large as pigs and small deer, and have been known to bring down an adult water buffalo. They are opportunistic feeders and will eat anything they can overpower including small dragons and small or injured humans (dragons make up to 10% of their diet).An eyewitness account revealed that a 101 lb (46 kg.) dragon ate a 90 lb. (41 kg.) pig in 20 minutes. As a comparison, a 100 lb. person would have to eat 320 quarter pound hamburgers in less than 20 minutes to keep up with the dragon.
In the zoo, the Komodo dragons are fed previously frozen rats.
REPRODUCTION and GROWTH:
The life expectancy of a Komodo is between 20 to 40 years. As noted above, Komodo dragons are generally solitary animals, except during the breeding season.
The male Komodo dragon presses his snout to the female's body, and flicks her with his long, forked tongue to obtain chemical information about her receptivity. He then scratches her back with his long claws, making a ratchet-like noise. If unreceptive, she raises and inflates her neck and hisses loudly.
The female wild dragons will utilize the nest mound of a brush turkey in which she will lay a clutch of up to 30 eggs. Hatchlings are about 15 inches (40 centimeters) and weigh 3.5 ounces (100 g.).Juveniles are multi-hued, (yellow, green, brown and gray); with a speckled and banded skin. Adult colors vary from earthen red to slate gray and black.
STATUS:
Endangered: The largest threat is volcanic activity, fire and subsequent loss of its prey base. Currently habitat alteration , poaching of prey species and tourism may have the most pronounced effect. Commercial trade in specimens or skins is illegal under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES).
Wild Population: 3,000 to 5,000.
<<<---Back
0 comments:
Post a Comment