Do you want to learn a bit about Komodo Dragons? You probably should, in case you wash up on a remote Indonesian island. Hey, it happened to a few people last year:

For 12 hours [five] divers had been clinging to each other in shark-infested waters after being carried from their diving boat by currents.

But wracked by dehydration and exhaustion, their joy at reaching Rinca island was short-lived when a Komodo dragon appeared on the beach. They pelted it with rocks and it retreated, and the five divers were later rescued.

Oops! Watch those currents. Oh and don’t go onto any of the Dragon’s Islands. Last week on another island, commonly known as Loh Sriaya in eastern Indonesia’s Komodo National Park, a fisherman was sneeking about looking for fruit.

The park’s general manager Fransiskus Harum told CNN, “The fisherman was inside the park when he went looking for sugar-apples. The area was forbidden for people to enter as there are a lot of wild dragons.” (link)

We all know how dragons like their sugar apples. Stay away from the dragon’s SUGAR APPLES!

They also mauled a 5 year old German kid last year, and have been known to climb ladders into local ’stilt-houses’ and munch on human hands. Stay away from the dragons!

Ok, so lets say you end up on Rinca or Loh Sriaya. You know these islands belong to the dragons, but what should you know about your chances for survival? Here is some BBC info on what to expect from these mighty beasts:

• A Komodo dragon’s favoured method of attack is to lie in the bushes and long grass and then pounce on their prey, usually deer, feral pigs or water buffalo. It also eats carrion. [AND HUMANS]

• Pound for pound they are incredibly powerful, says Dr Stephen, the largest lizard in the world measuring up to three metres long (9ft 10ins) and 120kg (265 lbs). And they are strong swimmers so could follow a fleeing human into the sea.

• “Generally they attack their prey but don’t kill it there and then. They have a poisonous saliva full of different bacteria, about 80 species of bacteria. So in a couple of days septicaemia sets in and the prey dies.”

• Contrary to some reports they do not spit venom, he says, but their teeth are shark-like and leave a very nasty and poisonous bite. If the wounded prey gets away the dragon can follow a blood trail a couple of miles away.

(link)
Oh and they are enormous :

A picture of a Dragon eating a wild beast below the bump: