Walking With Dragons

Dancing with Beasts on Indonesia’s Komodo Island

By Anna Stewart

Carnivorous komodo dragons, which can reach more than 10 feet long, live on Indonesia's Komodo Island, a tiny strip of land between the islands of Sumbawa and Flores.

We had come to see the dragons. We wanted to go snorkeling and eat fresh fish, but mostly, we came for the dragons – those 10-foot long, flesh-eating Komodo dragons, the largest lizard now walking on earth.

Our small, chartered boat docked at Komodo Island right after an inedible breakfast of boiled bananas. No roads exist on this small island, which is just a speck on the map in the eastern third of Indonesia’s island chain. In fact, this dry, hilly crumb of an island has one only one small fishing village built on stilts and the little pier where we docked. The rest of the island is for the dragons.

About 20,000 people visit this remote area each year. Some days no one comes at all, but at the height of the season in June and July, 100 tourists a day may float in to see the dragons. On the day we visited, 17 people followed the required park guides.

The two Florenese guides carried long forked sticks as we walked softly behind them. The wide, flat trail went into the heart of the small island. Yet, there was no sign of the dragons.

Ronald, a visiting Dutchman, wondered aloud if the dragons preferred Dutch or American flesh. We laughed nervously, keeping our eyes open for the giant beasts.

Komodos hunt by ambush, waiting for prey to wander into range and seizing it in their jaws. Nearby

in the tiny park headquarters was a photo of a memorial on a hill for Swiss man who was allegedly consumed after wandering away from his group and falling asleep under a tree. All they found, we were told, were his hat and camera.

The lead guide stopped. A dragon! Well, actually there were two dragons, engaged, so to speak. Or rather, the male was trying to get on top of the smaller female. Apparently the male has to completely overpower the female, even though she may have indicated her interest by bobbing her head and doing push-ups. Of course, we took pictures.

The guide got nervous and made us keep walking to where he could pen us up. I liked this switch in roles. The people were put in a large enclosed area with bathrooms and benches. The dragons came up to the fence and stared at us in that unblinking reptile way that lizards do.

The park rangers feed the dragons a goat twice a week so they hang around, yet don’t feel a need to eat the tourists. Visitors used to bring their own goats, but the wildlife biologists wisely stopped allowing that. The lizards were getting lazy and the rat population was getting too large.

One huge male sat motionless in the sun. Blood from yesterday’s goat had dried on his chin. He was frightening, yet seemed harmless, even though I knew he wasn’t. Maybe it was the fence separating us. Maybe it was too many National Geographic specials. The idea of the dragons hunting and eating animals and people was scary, but strangely intriguing and impressive.

The dragons, called ora by the locals, will eat anything they can catch, kill or scavenge. The beasts have rows of jagged teeth, serrated and curved with sharp tips and wide bases. The Komodo is unique in that it is the only reptile to cut its prey into sections before eating. Using its articulated jaws, it can maneuver huge sections of animal – even the odd shapes such as horned heads and pelvic sections – into its stomach.

The big guy took a meander around the enclosure, his massive, scaly tail dragging in the dirt. The dragons didn’t growl or show their teeth the way a mammalian predator might; they just lazed about under the scorching sun. It wasn’t very intimidating behavior for a reptile of such repute.

Then suddenly, out of the sparse vegetation, a dragon ran towards us at full speed, tail raised, short legs pumping. Taking a sharp right, she bolted into the grasses, her rejected suitor close behind, moving at five to 12 miles an hour. I was suddenly glad the fence was there.

The pair ran off somewhere to continue their courtship as more dragons came to see us. Long forked tongues flicking, they ranged in size from about five to 10 feet long. Some dragons can weigh up 330 pounds (150 kilos), but most are slimmer at only 80 to 120 (56 kilos) pounds.

As the sun got higher in the cloudless sky, the day became much hotter. The guide decided it was time to leave, and he herded us out with his stick. Back at the dock, our young captain was ready to go. He took us to a nearby cove. “Okay, how about some snorkeling now?” he said, gesturing towards the “oh-my-gosh-this-is-unbelievably-clear” water.