What Do Komodo Dragons Eat? Hunting Deer, Pigs and Carrion

The main prey of adult Komodo dragons

On Komodo, Rinca and Flores, the most important prey of adult Komodo dragons is the Javan rusa, a medium-sized deer known locally as Timor deer. Wild boar and feral water buffalo are also major food, and dragons take goats, feral horses, long-tailed macaques, rats, birds, snakes and other reptiles when they get the chance.

Most of these large prey animals were brought to the islands by people. Deer, pigs and buffalo arrived within roughly the last several thousand years. Before then, scientists think Komodo dragons hunted dwarf species of Stegodon, an extinct relative of elephants, along with giant rats and other native animals of the islands.

How Komodo dragons hunt

Komodo dragons are ambush hunters. A dragon lies still beside a game trail or at the edge of a clearing, often near a spot where deer come to feed or drink. When prey walks close, it charges in a short, explosive rush and bites at the legs, belly or throat. It can run at up to about 20 km/h (12 mph), but only for a few seconds.

The bite is the main weapon. About 60 curved, serrated teeth slice deep wounds as the dragon pulls back with its strong neck. Venom from glands in the lower jaw slows blood clotting and lowers blood pressure, so prey bleeds heavily and soon weakens; see are Komodo dragons venomous. Field studies show that dragons usually try to kill prey on the spot, and wild pigs and deer often die within minutes. The old idea that a dragon bites and then follows dying prey for days is now thought to describe failed attacks rather than a deliberate strategy.

Carrion: the dragon’s sense of smell

Komodo dragons are also major scavengers. They track smells with their long, forked tongue, which carries scent particles to a sensory organ in the roof of the mouth called the Jacobson’s organ. Swinging the head from side to side as it walks, a dragon can tell which direction a smell comes from.

With a favorable wind, a dragon is thought to be able to detect a carcass several kilometers away. A large dead animal can attract many dragons at once. The biggest individuals eat first, while smaller ones wait or show submission with body language and hissing, and fights sometimes break out between dragons of similar size.

How much can a Komodo dragon eat at once?

A Komodo dragon can eat up to about 80 percent of its own body weight in a single meal. It tears off large chunks of meat by holding the carcass down with its front feet and pulling with its head, then swallows them whole. Loose jaw joints, a flexible skull and an expandable stomach let it swallow prey as big as a goat in one piece, although that can take around 15 to 20 minutes. A small tube under the tongue that leads to the lungs lets it keep breathing while swallowing.

Dragons are not wasteful. They eat bones, hooves and skin, but usually avoid the plant-filled stomach and intestines of their prey. After a big meal, a dragon lies in the sun to raise its body temperature, which speeds digestion. Later it coughs up a pellet of hair, horn and teeth. With their slow reptile metabolism, large adults can survive on about a dozen big meals a year.

What young Komodo dragons eat

Hatchlings are only about 40 to 46 cm (16 to 18 in) long and weigh around 100 g (3.5 oz), so their diet is very different. They spend their first few years mostly in trees, hunting insects such as grasshoppers and beetles, plus geckos, small lizards, birds and eggs.

Living in trees also keeps them safer from adult dragons, which do eat juveniles. Young dragons feeding near a carcass have been seen rolling in dung, which may make them less appealing to bigger dragons. As they grow past about 1 to 1.5 m (3 to 5 ft), they move to the ground and take larger prey.

Do Komodo dragons eat people?

People are not normal prey, but large dragons are dangerous, and attacks do happen. Komodo National Park recorded 24 attacks on people between 1974 and 2012, five of them fatal, most involving villagers who live in or near the park. In the past, dragons sometimes dug up shallow graves, which is why villagers on Komodo moved burials to harder ground and covered graves with stones. Today visitors walk with trained rangers and keep well back from the animals. Anyone bitten needs emergency medical help immediately.

Why the dragons depend on healthy prey

Because adults rely so heavily on deer and pigs, the fate of Komodo dragons is tied to their prey. The population on the small island of Padar disappeared by the 1970s, most likely after poachers wiped out the deer. Protecting the deer, pigs and buffalo in the national park is therefore as important for the dragons’ survival as protecting the dragons themselves.