Komodo dragons are carnivores. Although they eat mostly carrion,[4] they will also ambush live prey with a stealthy approach. When suitable prey arrives near a dragon’s ambush site, it will suddenly charge at the animal and go for the underside or the throat.[14] It is able to locate its prey using its keen sense of smell, which can locate a dead or dying animal from a range of up to 9.5 km (6 miles).[14] Komodo dragons have also been observed knocking down large pigs and deer with their strong tail, as well as deliberately harassing pregnant goats and deer in the hopes of inducing a miscarriage they can consume.[24][25]
Komodo dragons eat by tearing large chunks of flesh and swallowing them whole while holding the carcass down with their forelegs. For smaller prey up to the size of a goat, their loosely articulated jaws, flexible skull, and expandable stomach allow it to swallow its prey whole. The vegetable contents of the stomach and intestines are typically avoided.[23] Copious amounts of red saliva that the Komodo dragons produce help to lubricate the food, but swallowing is still a long process (15–20 minutes to swallow a goat). Komodo dragons may attempt to speed up the process by ramming the carcass against a tree to force it down its throat, sometimes ramming so forcefully that the tree is knocked down.[23] To prevent itself from suffocating while swallowing, it breathes using a small tube under the tongue that connects to the lungs.[14] After eating up to 80 percent of its body weight in one meal,[7] it drags itself to a sunny location to speed digestion, as the food could rot and poison the dragon if left undigested for too long. Because of their slow metabolism, large dragons can survive on as little as 12 meals a year.[14] After digestion, the Komodo dragon regurgitates a mass of horns, hair, and teeth known as the gastric pellet, which is covered in malodorous mucus. After regurgitating the gastric pellet, it rubs its face in the dirt or on bushes to get rid of the mucus, suggesting that it, like humans, does not relish the scent of its own excretions.[14]
A young Komodo dragon photographed on Rinca feeding on a water buffalo carcass
The largest animals generally eat first, while the smaller ones follow a hierarchy. The largest male asserts his dominance and the smaller males show their submission by use of body language and rumbling hisses. Dragons of equal size may resort to “wrestling”. Losers usually retreat though they have been known to be killed and eaten by victors.[14]
Komodo excrement is mostly white as the stomach is not capable of digesting the calcium found in the bones of the animals they eat.
The Komodo dragon’s diet is wide-ranging, and includes invertebrates, other reptiles (including smaller Komodo dragons), birds, bird eggs, small mammals, monkeys, wild boar, goats, deer, horses, and water buffalo.[26] Young Komodos will eat insects, eggs, geckos, and small mammals.[4] Occasionally they consume humans and human corpses, digging up bodies from shallow graves.[19] This habit of raiding graves caused the villagers of Komodo to move their graves from sandy to clay ground and pile rocks on top of them to deter the lizards.[23] The Komodo dragon may have evolved to feed on the extinct dwarf elephant Stegodon that once lived on Flores, according to evolutionary biologist Jared Diamond.[27]
Because the Komodo dragon does not have a diaphragm, it cannot suck water when drinking, nor can it lap water with its tongue. Instead, it drinks by taking a mouthful of water, lifting its head, and letting the water run down its throat.[14]
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