Four Komodo dragons (Varanus komodoensis), the largest species of lizard in the world, fight over the carcass of a goat as part of the park’s attraction. A ranger stood guard, armed with a long stick.
By
AGUS SUSANTO
·3 minutes read
The speedboat that took us from Labuan Bajo docked at Loh Liang on Komodo Island after an hour\'s journey. Loh Liang is the main point of entry to Komodo National Park (TNK) in West Manggarai regency, East Nusa Tenggara.
We were welcomed with a performance of the Caci war dance. Four youths wielded wooden shields that they used to fend off the attacking whips of the other dancers. Not long afterwards, we trekked down a short trail. The coastal wind blew through the trees of tamarind, lontar, bidara and gebang along the route.
Four Komodo dragons (Varanus komodoensis), the largest species of lizard in the world, fight over the carcass of a goat as part of the park’s attraction. A ranger stood guard, armed with a long stick. We kept our distance and stayed aware of our surroundings.
The local people call the Komodo dragon “ora”. According to their beliefs, the giant lizard is one-half of a pair of offspring resulting from a union between the Princess Naga (lizard princess) and a man named Najo. Princess Naga gave birth to twins, one a human she named Gerong, and the other was a lizard she named Ora.
The twins grew up separately, so when Gerong met Ora in the forest, he was going to kill the lizard, not realizing it was his twin. But Princess Naga intervened and reminded Gerong that Ora was his own brother, and Gerong treated him humanely.
Spanning 146 islands, Komodo National Park is mostly water. Its marine area covers 1,214 square kilometers and its land area covers 603 square kilometers. The park is home to 277 Australasian species, comprising 32 mammalian species, 128 bird species and 37 reptilian species. This includes 25 protected terrestrial animals, including the Komodo dragon (Kompas, 7 August 2018).
The Komodo dragon lives for 40 to 50 years. The dragon population is made up of one female Komodo for every four male dragons, which adds to the complexity of the species’ survival. There are 1,337 dragons on Komodo Island, 1,473 on Rinca Island, four on Padar Island, 90 on Gilimotang Island, and 80 dragons on Nusa Kode (Kompas, 19 November 2017).
Our journey continued under cloudy skies over the island of Nusa Kode, even though it was still 8:00 a.m. Central Indonesian Time. Dragons emerged from a bush, one by one, until seven giant lizards stood on the black sandy coastline. A Flores eagle (Nisaetus floris) took flight from the trees to dive into the water near the dragons and caught a small fish. It was an adrenaline-pumping experience of the island’s wild natural landscape.
The area was designated as a national park in 1980, and in 1986, UNESCO declared the park a World Heritage Site and a Biosphere Reserve under its Man and the Biosphere (MAB) Reserve Programme. On 11 Nov. 2011, Komodo National Park was listed as one the New 7 Wonders of Nature.
It can only be hoped that the Komodo, the world’s largest reptiles and the only ancient creatures left in the world, will be conserved so our children and grandchildren can still experience them in the wild, and not as mere myth. (Photographs taken in 2007, 2011 and 2016).