Komodo Dragons

That was my point. I was saying "OTHER" monitors aren't large enough to consider humans as food.
 
Yes, what I was saying was, even though virulent bacteria may be present in the saliva of species of Varanus other than komodoensis, they do not pose as great a threat to a private owner, seeing as no species of monitor besides komodoensis is large enough to eat you.
 
I keep a few of the smaller Aussie Monitors myself but I can tell you that I would not like to handle an animal the size of the Malay Water Monitor (2nd largest species) or even our own Perentie the 3rd largest species they are huge.
 
Sun Wukong said:
Two things make me wonder, though:

1) Why does it take the Komodo Dragons so long to "conquer" the European zoos? Maybe because the name of the species isn't that catchy in some of the Non-English languages: "Dragon" does sound better than "monitor"...;)
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It was said once that only legitimate way how to get them is as a gift from indonesian government/ head of state.
 
Good point with the sexing, @Zooplantman: that also seemed to have been an early problem in other zoos keeping komodos.
The genetic limitation of the European Komodo Dragon zoo population makes me wonder where Leipzig will get theirs from.

Bearded Dragons also do not grow up to at least approximately "dragonish" proportions, @Anyhuis...;)
@Ituri: Oh, I know some monitors (big & small) that take the term "finger food" a little too literally. ;)

Being potentially very dangerous doesn't prevent several of the deadliest species from being kept as pets. And to get them, people usually don't go the legitimate way...
 
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One dragon for Leipzig is being kept temporarily at Rotterdam at the moment, it is one of the animals that hatched in Chester 2 (?) years ago.
 
Sun Wukong said:
Being potentially very dangerous doesn't prevent several of the deadliest species to be kept as pets. And to get them, people usually don't use the legitimate way...
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That's the truth. Being in Florida it is not uncommon to run into someone with highly venomous herps or crocodilians. I know someone selling green mambas for a mere $100.
 
snowleopard said:
It's interesting to think about komodo dragons in American zoos these days. In 1994 they were found in ONLY 3 zoos (National, Cincinnati and San Diego). In fact, Cincinnati became only the 2nd U.S. zoo with dragons due to a "political gift", when in 1989 the president of Indonesia gave a pair of them to President Bush (Sr). In 1992, when the National Zoo had 13 dragon eggs hatch, they were the first ever komodo dragons born outside of Indonesia! But now, a mere 15 years later, they are in about 40 American zoos, including many lesser-known collections. They are no longer a big deal in some zoos, and last summer my wife and I saw countless komodos on our epic road trip. Are komodos now just another reptile? It seems as if they are easily found at many zoos, and my two favourite (and possibly largest) exhibits for them are the ones at Disney's Animal Kingdom and the Columbus Zoo.
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So, Komodo dragons were really that rare back then and frequently common nowadays?
 
I actually liked the Komodo dragon exhibit at the Zoo Center in the Bronx Zoo, tbh.
 
snowleopard said:
In 1994 they were found in ONLY 3 zoos (National, Cincinnati and San Diego).
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San Diego had to of have them since, at least, the mid-eighties; that's when I first recall seeing them at the zoo. It's things like this that make me think I was justified for never needing to visit another zoo outside of San Diego's parks.
 
Buldeo said:
San Diego had to of have them since, at least, the mid-eighties; that's when I first recall seeing them at the zoo. It's things like this that make me think I was justified for never needing to visit another zoo outside of San Diego's parks.
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San Diego had them at least as early as the 1970s. I saw one in 1978 there. At that time that was the only place in the country to see Komodo dragons and koalas, and one of the few zoos in the U.S. with okapis.

This page says that the first dragons at San Diego Zoo arrived in 1968.
Komodo Dragon | San Diego Zoo Animals & Plants

The San Diego Zoo acquired its first two Komodo dragons in 1968. They were believed to be a "pair" (male and female), but were too young when they arrived for us to be absolutely certain about that. It wasn’t until 1975 when the animals were sexually mature that hormonal analyses revealed that they were both females, and so we began to search for a breeding-loan male. Named One Eye, that male arrived from the Basel Zoo in Switzerland in 1976, but no offspring were ever produced.
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DavidBrown said:
This page says that the first dragons at San Diego Zoo arrived in 1968.
Komodo Dragon | San Diego Zoo Animals & Plants
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Yeah, I saw that earlier today. I was pleasantly surprised that they went that far back. I'm kind of curious as to whether or not we saw the original trio then or the second generation.

It's definitely curious at how fast they've become so, well, regularly fetured.

Matthew Guimac said:
So, how many Komodo dragons are at the San Diego Zoo?
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Not sure. The last time I saw one on exhibit (they're off exhibit at the moment), there was only one. I have to imagine that they have a breeding pair though.
 
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