"The long, jaded teeth are the primary weapons. The authors, who used surgically excised glands from a terminally ill dragon at the Singapore Zoo, dismissed the theory that prey die from blood poisoning caused by toxic bacteria in the lizard's mouth. When they catch their prey, they carry out a frenzied biting spree that releases venom, according to a new study this month in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. They can reach speeds of up to 18 miles (nearly 30 kilometers) per hour, their legs winding around their low, square shoulders like egg beaters. The animals are believed to have descended from a larger lizard on Indonesia's main island Java or Australia around 30,000 years ago. However tame they may appear, lounging beneath trees and gazing at the sea from white-sand beaches, they are fast, strong and deadly. The giant lizards have always been dangerous, said Rudiharto. Villagers say the dragons are hungry and more aggressive toward humans because their food is being poached, though park officials are quick to disagree. Though poaching is illegal, the sheer size of the park - and a shortage of rangers - makes it almost impossible to patrol, said Heru Rudiharto, a biologist and reptile expert. The lizards on neighboring Padar were wiped out in the 1980s when hunters killed their main prey, deer. All of the estimated 2,500 left in the wild can be found within the 700-square-mile (1,810-square-kilometer) Komodo National Park, mostly on its two largest islands, Komodo and Rinca.
Komodos, which are popular zoo exhibits from the United States to Europe, grow to be 10 feet (3 meters) long and 150 pounds (70 kilograms). (AP Photo/Dita Alangkara) Dita Alangkara / AP Komodo dragons have a fearsome reputation worldwide because their shark-like teeth and poisonous saliva can kill a person within days of a bite. Attacks on humans by Komodo dragons _ said to number at around 2,500 in the wild _ are rare, but seem to have increased in recent years. "Luckily, my friends heard my screams and got me to hospital in time." In this photo taken on April 30, 2009, Main, a park ranger who survived a komodo dragon attack shows his swollen hand at his house in Labuan Bajo, Indonesia. I've spent half my life working with Komodos and have never seen anything like it," said Main, pointing to his jagged gashes, sewn up with 55 stitches and still swollen three months later. When the ranger tried to pry open the beast's powerful jaws, it locked its teeth into his hand. Main, a 46-year-old park ranger, was doing paper work when a dragon slithered up the stairs of his wooden hut in Komodo National Park and went for his ankles dangling beneath the desk. But fear is swirling through the fishing villages, along with questions on how best to live with the dragons in the future. Komodo dragon attacks are still rare, experts note.
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