victim into a state of shock , death may not occur for a lengthy interval . Using their acute sense of smell , the lizards are able to detect dead animals from a distance of several kilometres . Interestingly , Komodo Dragons are immune to their own venom , but unfortunately the same can ’ t be said for humans . In the last century , a dozen people died after being accidentally bitten by the beasts . More recently , two humans have lost their lives on Komodo Island due to dragon attacks ; one was a local child and the second was a Swiss tourist who ventured off a track . Komodo Dragons are apex predators in their ecosystem and have a strict hierarchy when it comes to feeding . The dominant male eats first while the others watch from a respectable distance , waiting for him to move away from the meal . The females , however , ignore such rules and happily eat together . These lizards have enormous , expandable stomachs , allowing them to consume up to eighty percent of their body weight in a single feeding session .
Mating season starts in May and lasts for some three to four months , during which time the males fight vigorously over females and territory , often inflicting serious wounds to each other . In August and September the females lay about 20 eggs in burrows or the discarded nesting mounds of the Orange-footed Scrubfowl ( Megapodius reinwardt ), a small megapode bird . These mounds are constructed from soil and leaf litter ; they can be up to 150 centimetres in height and five metres in diameter . Female Komodo Dragons have been known to
‘ MORE RECENTLY , TWO HUMANS HAVE LOST THEIR LIVES ON KOMODO ISLAND DUE TO
DRAGON ATTACKS .’
guard their eggs for the first three months of incubation , which takes approximately seven months . After hatching , the juveniles are quick to make it to the trees , where they are better protected from predators , including the cannibalistic adults that can ’ t climb .
Komodo Dragons can also reproduce by parthenogenesis ; they reach sexual maturity in eight to nine years and can live for up to 30 years . As a rule , males are larger and bulkier than females , but other than probing for hemipenes , the only available method of establishing gender is to examine the precloacal scales , and this can be unreliable . Adults establish overlapping territories which may cover an area of more than 500 hectares .
Today there are approximately 6,000 Komodo Dragons living in the wild ; 1,700 on Komodo Island , 1,300 on Rinca and the rest on Flores and small islands in the Lesser Sunda group . Males appear to considerably outnumber females , and scientists are concerned that there may be as few as 350 breeding females in the entire population ! The species is fully protected and listed as Vulnerable on the IUCN Red List , and the Indonesian government has strict control over tourism on the lizardinhabited islands . The good news is that there is little human habitation , and Komodo and the surrounding islands have now been designated as a national park .