Komodo Dragon

Varanus komodoensis. Komodo Islands, Indonesia. Mounted specimen, 1932.

Very few museums have mounted specimens of the largest lizards in the world. The NHM also has a komodo dragon preserved in alcohol – an unusual method of preserving so large an animal.

ECONOMIC CRISIS LIZARD
Komodo dragons live only on six of the Lesser Sunda Islands, Indonesia, and were not designated as a separate species until 1912. During the First World War, they passed into oblivion. In 1926 the American Douglas Burden equipped a private expedition to Komodo to research the lizards and bring back several animals for American museums. The Museum of Comparative Zoology in Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA, offered the NHM Vienna a male in exchange for two constrictors and ten lizards. A call for donations in Vienna to finance the mounting of the specimen was successful despite the economic crisis, and the Komodo dragon was mounted and put on display in the public collection in 1932. The male Komodo dragon – the largest species of lizard alive today – can grow up to three meters long and weigh 70 kilograms. This lizard species eats carrion as well as live animals – even some that are larger than it is itself, such as deer and water buffalo. They use their poisonous bite to kill their prey, which they then swallow whole or tear into pieces, depending on size. By contrast, young Komodo dragons eat primarily small lizards and insects. They are skilled climbers and are frequently to be found in the branches of trees – not least to avoid mature members of their species who do spare even their own offspring. New studies of Komodo dragons kept in captivity show that females can adapt to asexual breeding if there are no males available.