Can Indonesia’s Komodo dragons survive Chinese tourists?
The famed apex predators are able to kill anyone who gets near, but may themselves fall prey to Indonesia’s tourism ambitions
Recently, a village carpenter had to have his leg sawed off after being bitten by one. And last year, a Singaporean tourist was attacked while trying to take a photo.
The reptiles have more than a dozen types of venom in their saliva that can prevent blood clotting.
“They don’t really think,” Agus says of the near-endangered animal, which feeds on local deer, water buffalo and wild pigs and can grow up to three metres long. “They act on basic instinct and are opportunistic carnivores. They need meat. Any meat.”
On this mild spring day, five adult Komodos are lazing in the shade by the rangers’ mess on Rinca, one of the three main islands in the protected park’s 26-isle archipelago, drawn in by the smell of food.
One of them flicks a pale forked tongue out to sample the air before making a slow stride to another spot in the shade. A small group of tourists snap pictures from a distance. None of them are speaking Chinese.