Deer for lunch?

After having shown a picture of a young monitor lizard in our room on Pandan island, Mindoro I need to share three pictures from Komodo Island in Indonesia. While the monitor lizard grows up to 2 ½ meters, the komodo varanus (or komodo dragon) is reaching some 3 meters. Interesting, the weight of a komodo dragon is about 50 to 70 kilogram when the stomach is empty but it quickly reaches 100 to 150 kilogram depending on how much food the komodo dragon can find. The good thing about these pictures from August 1992 is the fact that most of these komodo dragons are still there. Komodo dragons have a life expectancy of up to 50 years. One more sentence on caution, komodo dragons run up to 30km/h and are known to be fast swimmers.

Photo above: Feeding timor deer, the komodo dragon's main prey.

Photo above: It can get quite crowded when only one deer is served.

Photo above: Ouups, the deer's stomach exploded.