Komodo Dragon

Sauropoda is a kind of family of monitor lizards, it comes from some islands in central of Indonesia. It is the largest lizard in the world, it is about two to three meters and it weighs about 70 kg. As a result of their size, they are the best predators in the ecosystems in where they live. Although these lizards eat mainly of carrion and they also hunt.

The first time Western scientists studied the Komodo dragon was in 1910. Their exceptional size and fearsome reputation makes animal in one of the most popular animals in zoos. In the wild are an endangered species, its range has been reduced beacuse the human activities and are listed as vulnerable on the IUCN Red List. They are protected by Indonesian law, and a national park, Komodo National Park was founded in 1980 to contribute to their conservation.
Their reproduction season begin between July and August and egg laying in September. Deposited about twenty eggs in nests abandoned megapode, and incubated for seven or eight months, until they born in April, when insects are more abundant. Young people are vulnerable, so they often live in trees, so they are protected from predators and cannibalistic adults. It takes approximately three to five years to mature and can live to fifty years. These lizards are among the few vertebrates capable of reproduction by parthenogenesis, a process by which the females can lay viable eggs in situations of absence of males.


By: Martín Goce and Pedro Liz