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Home for Komodo ,The Habitats and
The Ecosystem
Komodo National Park has widely known with the home of the giant lizard Komodo
Dragon - which has just declare to be one of the latest heritage of the world.
Komodo National Park is nestled between eastern Sumbawa and western Flores lie
three tiny grass-covered islands Komodo, Padar and Rinca, which together form
the Komodo National Park, a protected wildlife reserve. This is the home of the
giants lizard known as the "Komodo Dragon" it was thought to be a myth until the
turn of the century, when fishermen who were forced by a storm to take shelter
on Komodo sight the monsters.
Explore the under water live and its ecosystems which has well known as the best
diving site in the world. From beautiful coral, reefs, thousands sort of fishes
to the crystal water and beautiful beach are await to visit. Komodo dragons live
in one of the driest area in Indonesia, where there are few permanent water
sources.
This is the world's largest monitor lizard, varanus Komodoensies, when full
grown it measures up to 3.13 meters (10feet 2 inches) in length and weight
anything up to 165.9kg (365pounds). They are fearsome creatures with enormous
jaws, squat muscular legs and sharp claws. Preying on live deer, goats and wild
pigs, they lie in wait hidden in the long grass
Young dragons spend most of their time in trees but dragons over 1.5m long can
not climb well. Dragons over 2 meters are too heavy to climb trees. The Komodo
dragons are constantly regulating their body temperatures. In the early morning,
they must warm-up their bodies in the sun. If their body temperature drops too
low, the food in their stomach can rot and cause regurgitation or even death.
However, the Komodo dragon's body temperature must not exceed 42 degrees celcius
(108 degrees Fahrenheit). When it is too hot, they must rest and seek shade to
prevent their body from over-heating. Dragons are most active from 6 - 10am in
the morning and again from 3 - 5pm in the afternoon. During the rainy season.
Komodo dragons stay in burrows if they are too cold. Komodo dragons sleep at
night because it is usually too cool for them to be active. They will sleep
where they will not loose too much heat at the edge of the savanna and monsoon
forest or in burrows. The average sleeping burrow is only 75cm to 1.25m in
length. The Komodo dragons will use the burrows of rodents, palm civets, wild
board, porcupine (on Flores) and those made by other Komodo dragons. Nesting
burrows are about 2 meters long.
Fossils bearing a strong resemblance have been unearths from chalk deposits
dating back 130 million years, about the end of the age of Dinosaurs. The few
inhabitants dwelling on Komodo today have built their Kampong on stilts right
next to the sea, and survive by dishing, as the land is dry and arid, almost
impossible to cultivate. The water surroundings the island are rich in colorful
corals, fish and shellfish, but there are nazardous rip tides and strong
currents which make diving too risk for the novice.
Dolphins, whales and sea turtles are often seen in the straits between the
islands, and a rare species of giants seawater crocodile has been sighted on
isolated beach.
KOMODO DRAGON IS ALSO KNOWN AS MONITOR GIANT LIZARDS and THE NATIONAL PARK
To catch a Komodo dragon in the dry deciduous monsoon forests of Indonesia's
Flores Island, biologist Claudio Ciofi and his colleagues set a "10-foot
mousetrap" with a freshly killed goat as bait. Then they wait.
The Komodo dragon, Varanus komodoensis, is the world's largest lizard, sometimes
growing up to 10 feet long (3 meters) and exceeding 150 pounds (70 kilograms).
Powerful as this creature seems, it has met its match in man's depredation.
Ciofi's research stands to boost the species' population in the wild and in the
world's zoos.
"These are charismatic beasts and not that much is known about them," says Ciofi,
a research fellow at Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut. "Their habitat
is shrinking fast, particularly on Flores, where the human population is growing
rapidly and where there are few protected areas (for the dragons)."
The Komodo dragon qualifies as "vulnerable" to extinction, according to the
United Nations' International Union for the Conservation of Nature and Natural
Resources.
The fearsome lizards, considered mythic by westerners until expeditions in the
early 20th century, now live only on five small islands, 300 miles (500
kilometers) east of Bali: Flores, Gili Dasami, Gili Motang, Komodo, and Rinca.
The lizards also inhabited the island of Padar until about 1980, when they
mysteriously disappeared. Researchers believe that there are either very few
dragons here, or they have become extinct.
Ciofi estimates the remaining population hovers somewhere around 3,000.
In 1980, Gili Dasami, Gili Motang, Komodo, Rinca, and Padar all became part of
the Komodo National Park. Later two reserves—Wae Wuul Reserve on the west coast
and Wolo Tado Reserve on the north coast—were added on Flores. However, there is
still much of the dragons' range on Flores that is not protected.
Trapping Dragons
During his visits to the islands over the last 10 years, Ciofi has had a hand in
tagging and examining about 250 Komodo dragons.
The goat that Ciofi uses for bait is a favorite meal of the lizard, which can
pick up the smell of carrion from three miles away.
Once a Komodo dragon is caught in the trap, the researchers restrain it with
ropes, then take measurements and draw blood for genetic studies. They implant a
small microchip—essentially an ID tag—underneath the skin behind the right hind
leg and harness the creature with a radio transmitter.
Each island has a distinct genetic population of lizard. Ciofi takes blood
samples from lizards in all islands to determine the relationships between the
populations, effectively creating a family tree for the species.
Eventually, researchers may decide to repopulate the island of Padar. The
genetic data gathered on the other islands will help choose the right lizards to
colonize the island.
"Claudio is a superb biologist and a major player in genetic and captive
breeding research," says James Murphy, a research associate at the Smithsonian
National Zoological Park in Washington, D.C. Murphy recently retired as curator
of herpetology at the Dallas Zoo where he worked for thirty years.
"But Claudio's main contribution is that he has alerted people, in particular
the Indonesian government, to the threats facing each population of Komodo
dragons."
Threats to the Dragon
On Flores, Ciofi believes that dragons probably once ranged throughout the
entire island. But now, with a human population of 1.5 million, the dragons are
thought to inhabit only parts of the western and northern coasts.
On both coasts the dragons face threats. In the west, poachers set fires to the
savanna to frighten deer out of the area, which they then kill. The fires
destroy the lizard's primary habitat. Between 1991 and 1998, after fires had
ravaged nearby savanna, researchers noted a 25 percent drop in the number of
dragons in the Wae Wuul Reserve on the west coast, which suggests than man is
indeed impinging on the dragons' territory, according to Ciofi.
On the northern coast, farmers employing slash and burn agriculture are
destroying the dragons' forest habitat.
Ciofi emphasizes human development must be sustainable— balancing the welfare of
both the local community and the dragons. Preserving the dragons and their
habitat, for example, benefits the community by bringing tourist revenues.
Ciofi is establishing a field research station on the west coast of Flores
Island, near the headquarters of a national park. The station will serve as a
training center for rangers and a temporary storage facility for blood samples.
It will also provide Internet access for data analysis.
Ciofi is collaborating on his research with professor Putra Sastrawan of Udayana
University in Bali, local villagers and the Indonesian government.
Komodo dragon breeding programs around the world depend on this from-the-field
genetic data to maintain their populations.
About 300 Komodo dragons live in captivity—more than 60 of which have been born
and bred in the United States. Since November, seven baby Komodo dragons have
hatched at the Denver Zoo, in Colorado.
"I never dreamed that someday I would be raising seven little dragons," says
Rick Haeffner, curator of reptiles and fishes at the Denver Zoo.
Strengthening the Komodo dragon's genetic legacy helps preserve these creatures
in Denver and in Indonesia. The dragon also serves as an "umbrella species,"
says Ciofi, protecting other less charismatic critters that also share the
distant islands.
(C)Mr. Bijal.F.Trevedi (www.nationalgeographic.com)
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