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Four Komodo Dragon Facts You Won't Find In The Google Doodle

This article is more than 7 years old.

If today’s Google doodle celebrating 37 years of Komodo National Park has inspired you to learn more about Komodo dragons, you’ve come to the right place. Here are four more facts about these awesomely huge reptiles.

A trip to collect them inspired the movie King Kong

After sightings of a giant lizard in Indonesia reached the Western world in 1912, American explorer W. Douglas Burden set off to collect more specimens of the mysterious creature for New York’s American Museum of Natural History in 1926. He brought back both live specimens for an exhibit at the Bronx Zoo and dead ones that are still on display at the museum today. Burden filmed some of the expedition and showed it to friend and filmmaker Merian Cooper who was inspired by it, injecting elements of it in his upcoming movie, King Kong.

They are venomous

Even though Komodo dragons have very sharp teeth, which should be good enough to catch their lunch, they are also capable of injecting venom into their prey. The venom contains an anti-coagulant, meaning their unlucky victims just bleed to death. Humans have been attacked by the dragons and usually live to tell the tale, but some have not been so lucky.

They got their start in Australia.

Komodo dragons are native only to some islands in Indonesia: Komodo, Rinca, Flores, Gili Montang and Gili Dasami. Between these islands, there are about 6,000 remaining in a stable population. Almost 4 million years ago, though, fossil evidence shows Komodo dragons got their start in Australia and were able to spread westward towards Indonesia when sea level was lower and more continental shelf was exposed.

They are capable of virgin birth

Some animals have the ability to reproduce through parthenogenesis, which is when a female can reproduce without fertilization from a male. Lots of reptiles can do this, including snakes and other monitor lizards, but it had not been seen in a Komodo dragon until it happened at Chester Zoo in 2006. The female lizard, Flora, laid 11 viable eggs without ever coming into contact with a male. 

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