Dragons are more than mystical creatures, they are in fact very real and very deadly. If you want to think of dragons, then meet the Komodo dragon the largest living lizard in the world, found on the island of Komodo in Indonesia, which the Komodo dragon gets its name from. The islands where the Komodo dragon lives on are all volcanic, it inhabits the lower monsoon forests and savannah up to about 700 metres above sea level. In the wild, an adult Komodo dragon usually weighs around 150 lbs, According to the Guinness Book of World Records, an average adult male will weigh 174 to 201 lbs and measure up to 8.5 feet long, while an average female will weigh 150 to 161 lbs and measure up to 7.5 feet long. Komodo dragon skin has armoured scales, which contain tiny bones called osteoderms. When in hunting, the Komodo is an opportunistic hunter, using camouflage and surprise to trap its prey, rather than stalking, it waits for its victims in tall grass, unmoving and unnoticed, until then it strikes, moving with lightning speed attacking with brutal efficiency. Their diet consume deer, pigs, water horses, water buffalo, anything and everything they can overpower. The Komodo also depends on its powerful sense of smell for hunting, darting its long forked tongue out to capture airborne sent molecules, it can smell the aroma of meat as far of 2 ½ miles away. If the victim is large, the reptile tackles the legs first to knock down its prey. Their long claws digs into body and then it rips at the belly, with the target quickly bleeding to death. Their powerful jaw has over 60 teeth up to an inch long with serrated, jagged edges like those on a circular saw, used to tear through flesh, teeth, claws, hooves and bones, virtually, nothing is left. If the crushing bite of the Komodo doesn’t kill, its poison soon will the mouth of the Komodo contains over 50 strains of virulent bacteria a single bite will cause blood poisoning, soon the victim will be dead within the weak. These mighty predators have been known to take down adult water buffalo weighing more than 1300 pounds, even other Komodos aren’t safe from their violence, young dragons make up as much as a 1/10th of the adult dragon’s diet, to avoid getting eaten, young Komodo roll in a excrement to mask their scent and live in trees staying out of reach from their cannibalistic elders. As fearsome these predators are, they’re no match for an even greater opponent, man. Only a few thousand of these creatures remain in the wild, due to poaching, loss of prey and loss of habitat, the Komodo dragons that do remain are a reminder of nature’s brutal power. A power that evolved over 100,000,000 years ago, making the Komodo dragon the largest of the lizard an apex predator, either hunting alone or in groups, attacking prey or each other, the Komodo has survived on savage skill and it’s proof that dragons do exist and their bite is far worse than their bark.