Be glad THESE don't crawl around your backyard!
Our Plastic Komodo Dragon
This realistic-looking komodo dragon is made to please, with its light brown body and realistic shading! It is a very well detailed plastic replica of a komodo dragon. This fabulous creature is posed realistically, its body braced for action, its tongue flicking to catch any scent! She makes for a wonderfully well-behaved pet, an amazing figurine for a presentation, or just a fun display in any room. She is 8 inches long, with every lovable lump and bump in extraordinarily clear detail! Check out our other komodo dragon toys and gifts.
About Komodo Dragons
Komodo dragons are found sunbathing on the rocks of the Indonesian islands of Rinca, Gili Motang, Gili Dasami, Flores, and of course, Komodo. Komodo dragons as a species have existed almost unchanged for 900,000 years, from a time when megafauna practically ran the world, and as such grows to an adult size of up to 10 feet long and over 150 pounds! The komodo dragon lives for about 30 years.
The komodo dragon is a very interesting and unique creature - it is one of the few lizards that hunts in a pack, and thanks to the komodo dragon we realized that it, along with several other monitor lizards, contains glands of venom which it can pump into its enemies. For a while it was believed that it was bacteria living in the dragon's mouth that caused such a severe reaction at the puncture site of a komodo dragon bite, but most scientists agree that it is actually due to the mild toxin released from these venom glands. Komodo dragons are also parthenogenic, which means that a femaale komodo dragon does not need a male to reproduce. In humans, the female sex chromosome is XX, while the male sex chromosome is XY; female dragons are ZW, while male dragons are ZZ. Some of the eggs a female komodo dragon produces contain a W chromosome, while some of the eggs contain a Z chromosome. When a female komodo dragon goes for an extended period of time without a male companion, whatever chromosome currently is in the eggs she has ready to produce will double. Eggs with a Z chromosome double to be ZZ, producing a fertile egg which will hatch to become a male komodo dragon - those with a W chromosome become WW, and are not fertile eggs, so nothing will become of them. The idea behind this parthenogenesis is that a female komodo dragon can be dropped off on the middle of an island uninhabited by her species and will be able to completely populate the island with more komodo dragons by hatching male dragons which she can then breed with to create both females and males.
This blog is sponsored by Tapir and Friends Animal Store.
