Re: The perils of garden life in OZ
Dragons are not nasty, Komodo dragons are not always nasty, if treated with respect.
This from Chester Zoo.
Komodo dragons are the gorillas of the reptile world – big and charismatic.
They’re magical, muscular and mysterious creatures, but they can also be gentle, curious and love exploring. We lay scent trails to stimulate their natural curiosity and keep their surroundings really interesting for them.
They’re the largest lizards on the planet at over two metres in length and they're also one of the oldest too.
Our Komodo dragon habitat in Dragons in Danger is home to magnificent male, Jantan, a name given to him by our conservation partners from the Komodo Survival Programme, a group of specialists working to protect the species on the Indonesian islands of Flores and Komodo. We also have a small female called Mezcal and three young sisters Sathi, Lara and Mia.
In 2007 we made international headlines, when Flora – a Komodo dragon which then lived at the zoo – reproduced having never named mated; a process called parthenogenesis. It was the first time this had ever been witnessed in the species and has since helped humans to gain a much deeper understanding of the remarkable animals.
I watched an episode of The Secret Life Of The Zoo about these creatures, the glass in their enclosure had a large crack & they had to mend it.