To catch their prey, they use an ambush strategy. So it’s no wonder they can take down animals as large as wild boar, deer, and buffalo. The animal may escape the dragon’s clutches, but it will not escape the poison that will eventually bring it down. Unlike a snake, which injects venom into a victim through its sharp fangs, the venom of a Komodo dragon seeps into the large wounds it makes on any unfortunate animal it attacks. It wasn’t until 2009 that the decades-long myth of how Komodo dragons kill was finally replaced by the truth, thanks in large part to Fry’s research. They are poisonousīryan Fry, a poisons researcher at the University of Melbourne in Australia, discovered that the Komodo dragon is in fact one of the few poisonous lizards on the planet. Komodo dragons may have disappeared from Australia around 50,000 years ago, a disappearance that would have roughly coincided with the arrival of humans on the continent. According to fossil records, Komodo dragons (Varanus komodoensis) moved out of Australia and made their way to the islands of Indonesia, reaching the island of Flores around 900,000 years ago. While famous for being from the Indonesian island of Komodo and the surrounding islands, the Komodo dragon was first discovered in the land of Down Under.

Komodo dragons can eat 80% of their weight in one goġ. When it comes to metabolism, they are not like other reptiles.

Comodo dragon