February 28, 2023 – Day 69 – The half-way point of our adventure
it felt like we were entering Jurassic Park!
Today we explored Komodo National Park, Indonesia. We were expecting to go to the Island of Komodo where it is possible to walk among the dragons, but due to a restriction in the number of visitors allowed we went to Rinca Island. In preparation for our visit, we were advised not to shave the day of or the day before our trip. If anyone had an open wound, they had to let the Park Rangers know… apparently the Komodo Dragon can detect blood from miles away!
We were greeted at the ‘entrance’ to the park by a large sculpture of two Komodo Dragons engaged in battle. We walked up the dock from the ship’s tender to the walkway into the park where we met our guide and park rangers.
The Komodo National Park established in 1980 occupies 3 large and 26 small islands. On Rinca Island, one of the 3 main islands, the animals live here a without being fed or otherwise cared for by the park Rangers. The animals we saw were predator and prey in their natural habitat.
a mid-sized Komodo below.
We human visitors walked on a platform elevated above the animals. No one was allowed to ‘wander off’, even on the elevated walkway. We had a Guide and two park Rangers with each group of about 20 visitors. The Rangers were ‘armed’ with forked sticks, but no one had to use theirs! The platform was about 10 feet above the ground, so I don’t know how a dragon would get up on the platform. If a visitor chose to climb down into the dragon’s territory… well, sometimes natural selection happens! I was happy to be up on the platform… it’s a little hard to capture the size of these animals, but they are huge!
The Komodo Dragon is a monitor lizard that can grow up to 10 feet in length and weigh between 150 – 200 pounds. They can run up to 12 mph as they attack their prey and/or dive 15 feet underwater in pursuit. They are apex predators; carnivores who eat mostly carrion, but will take down live goats, deer & water buffalo. Our Guide told us the dragons will also bite their larger prey, introducing an anticoagulant and infection that will slowly disable their prey, who will be so weakened the large animal will be unable to defend itself and fall prey to attack days later. An adult Komodo can swallow a goat or small deer whole and has a specially adapted breathing ‘tube’ so they can breathe during the 30 plus minutes it takes to ingest the animal. Once the dragon digests the animal, it expels a pellet of undigested parts, like horns and hair, kind of like an owl does. The Komodo needs about 80% of their body weight each month, so they won’t eat every day if they’ve taken large prey. We were told they can go a whole month eating just once. Fortunately, we didn’t witness any feeding!
The Komodo Dragon, commonly a solitary animal, lays about 20 eggs each breeding season. The young hatch about 4 months later, climbing into trees to safety. Their survival rate is only about 15%. Komodo Dragons are cannibals, so their young have to avoid their parents after birth!
hopefully it wasn’t thinking we were his next meal!
Safely back on board we set sail for Bali. We will spend three days exploring the markets, temples and other cultural highlights of this unique island.
Our winter here near the equator is warm/hot and humid with lots of rain. Temperatures are very nearly the same morning, noon and night. Certainly not like this year’s winter weather at home in CA! Wherever this note finds you, we hope you are healthy and happy knowing that spring is likely just around the corner.