“Komodo dragons are the largest lizards alive today.”
Komodo dragons are the world's largest living lizards, restricted to a handful of Indonesian islands. They combine ambush hunting, a keen chemical sense, serrated teeth, and venom to overpower prey from smaller reptiles to deer, while also scavenging when carrion is available.
By An Nguyen · Published · Updated
Varanus komodoensisSquamataVaranidae
Measured against the 178 species profiled on this site. Each figure is converted to one unit system from the published range on the page, so the ranks are computed, not quoted.
| Measure | This species | Rank here | Exceeds |
|---|---|---|---|
| Body mass | 90.7 kg | #53 of 178#6 of 15 Reptilia | 71% |
| Body length | 3.05 m | #26 of 178#5 of 15 Reptilia | 84% |
| Top speed | 19.3 km/h | #70 of 77#4 of 5 Reptilia | 9% |
| Lifespan in the wild | 30 yr | #41 of 171#6 of 14 Reptilia | 75% |
Closest in body mass
Ranks use the upper end of each published adult range, so they compare typical large adults rather than records, and metrics with no published number are left out rather than estimated. The full table is downloadable from the species dataset, and any two species can be put side by side in the comparison tool.
Browse photographs of komodo dragon across habitat, behavior, anatomy, and life stages.
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Core article
A closer look at habitat, diet, behavior, reproduction, and conservation.
The Komodo dragon (Varanus komodoensis) is the largest living lizard and the apex predator of a handful of volcanic islands in Indonesia. It hunts deer, wild pigs, and other vertebrates and scavenges carrion, using serrated teeth and venom to subdue prey and a forked tongue to track scent. Fossil evidence indicates that this large-bodied lineage evolved in Australia before dispersing west, so its size did not originate as island gigantism on Flores. Australian fossils attributed to the species span roughly 3.8 million to 300,000 years ago, showing that large Komodo dragons persisted there long before the modern island population became restricted to Indonesia.
A mature male can reach 10 feet and weigh 150 to 200 pounds after a big meal, larger than the female. Tough, leathery skin is studded with small bony plates (osteoderms) that armor it in fights, and the jaws hold about 60 serrated, backward-curving teeth shaped much like a great white shark's, built to grip and slice flesh. MRI work has confirmed venom glands in the lower jaw, whose proteins promote bleeding, block clotting, and drop blood pressure, weakening prey that escape the first bite. The long forked tongue samples scent from air and ground and delivers it to the Jacobson's organ in the roof of the mouth, letting a dragon locate a carcass from as far as 2.5 miles off. It belongs to the monitor-lizard family Varanidae; its ancestors evolved in Australia around 4 million years ago before spreading west to the Lesser Sunda Islands, where large size may have helped them hunt the now-extinct pygmy elephants (Stegodon).
The Komodo dragon is endemic to a few central Indonesian islands — Komodo, Rinca, Flores, Gili Motang, and Padar — mostly within Komodo National Park. It lives in tropical dry forest, open savanna, and coastal scrub, country with a long dry season and a short monsoon, and shelters in burrows dug up to nine feet down where temperatures stay stable through the hottest hours. Unlike the semi-aquatic crocodile, it hunts and shelters on land. That tiny range leaves the species exposed to any single island's misfortunes.
An apex carnivore, the dragon shifts diet as it grows: juveniles are agile climbers that spend their early years in the canopy hunting insects, small lizards, and birds, partly to avoid cannibalistic adults. Grown dragons are terrestrial ambush hunters of large prey — Timor deer, wild boar, water buffalo, carrion, and smaller dragons — waiting along game trails and rushing from short range at up to 12 mph. A neck or belly bite can kill a pig or deer outright; against water buffalo the dragon bites the hind legs and then tracks the injured animal as blood loss and venom take their toll. Flexible jaws and an expandable stomach let an adult swallow up to 80% of its body weight at a sitting.
Komodo dragons are usually solitary, coming together only to breed or at a large carcass, whose scent can draw several dragons from around the area. At these feeds the biggest animals eat first and displace smaller ones with hisses, tail strikes, and bites. In the breeding season mature males wrestle for females, rearing onto their hind legs and balancing on their tails until one is forced down. Scars and other injuries are common outcomes of these contests.
Mating runs from May to August. The female often takes over an abandoned mound nest of the orange-footed scrubfowl, burying 15 to 30 leathery eggs in the decaying vegetation that warms them, and incubation lasts 7 to 8 months, with hatchlings emerging around April as insects become abundant. Remarkably, females can also reproduce by parthenogenesis, producing viable eggs with no male — all such offspring are male. A dragon that survives its vulnerable tree-dwelling youth can live over 30 years.
The IUCN lists the Komodo dragon as Endangered with a decreasing trend and fewer than about 3,500 in the wild. Human settlement and farm clearing on Flores shrink and divide its habitat, and illegal hunting of Timor deer strips a key food source, pushing dragons toward village livestock. Rising seas threaten low-lying coastal habitat, and because the whole population sits on a few islands, a single volcanic eruption, drought, or disease outbreak could hit a large share of the species at once.
Kingdom
Animalia
Phylum
Chordata
Class
Order
Squamata
Family
Varanidae
Genus
Varanus
Species
V. komodoensis
Komodo dragons are the largest lizards alive today.
They can smell carrion from miles away using their forked tongues.
Young Komodo dragons often live in trees to avoid being eaten by adults.
A Komodo dragon can run faster than many people expect for such a large reptile.
Komodo dragons can swim between nearby islands when they need to move.
Female Komodo dragons can sometimes lay fertile eggs even without a male.
Select a question to reveal the answer.
Wild Komodo dragons live only on a few Indonesian islands, mainly in and around Komodo National Park.
Komodo dragons are carnivores. They hunt deer, wild pigs, and other large animals, and they also eat carrion.
Yes. Komodo dragons are listed as Endangered because they live in a very small wild range and face habitat and prey loss.
Yes. A Komodo dragon bite delivers venom and harmful bacteria that help weaken prey.
Large adults can grow up to about 10 feet long and weigh around 150 to 200 pounds.
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