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When Komodo Dragons Attack
The Canberra Times ^ | Michael Turtle

Posted on 05/09/2020 11:20:11 PM PDT by nickcarraway

Maen still has nightmares about that morning. About those few minutes in which he almost died. About the time he was attacked by a man-eating reptile and had to fight it off to save his life.

"I don't like to tell my story anymore because when I tell again, when I'm sitting alone, I remember," he says, softly and humbly. "I would like to try to forget this story."

But Maen, the quiet-spoken middle-aged Indonesian, has agreed to tell me his tale so I can share it. He thinks it's important for people to understand the dangers of the Komodo dragons.

I meet Maen on Rinca Island in Indonesia's Komodo National Park, where he has been a ranger for years. The islands here have been home to Komodo dragons for about a million years and, isolated from the rest of the world with no predators, evolution largely overlooked these ancient reptiles.

The most common food for the Komodo dragon are deer, buffalo, goats, and birds. Sometimes they can attack and eat their prey whole. Other times they will bite and then wait patiently. Their saliva contains bacteria that will eventually kill another animal so they will stalk it, sometimes for as long as three weeks, until it dies and can be devoured.

One morning in 2009, it was Maen who was to be the prey for a Komodo dragon. When he went into his office, the small wooden building in the main camp looked the same as usual so he sat at the desk. It was then he looked down.

Maen at his desk where he was attacked by a Komodo dragon in 2009. Picture: Michael Turtle Maen at his desk where he was attacked by a Komodo dragon in 2009. Picture: Michael Turtle

"I saw the dragon under this table and my leg was here like this," Maen tells me as he demonstrates how his leg was near the drawers under the desk.

"I don't use the shoes - just sandals. So, after I saw the dragon I think 'what do I do?'. But in my feeling, I have to pull my leg away."

At the time he wasn't thinking about how the animal had ended up inside. As it later turned out, a cleaner had left the door open and the Komodo dragon had come in overnight looking for food. Clearly it had now found what it was looking for.

"I think that if I not pull my leg, the dragon will bite and swallow," Maen goes on.

"So I tried to pull my leg but the dragon follow and I look and see a tail moving over there. And I think this is a problem for me. And I pull my leg too fast and it got trapped in the table and then the dragon bite."

There are some 5000 dragons living in Indonesia's Komodo National Park. Picture: Michael Turtle There are some 5000 dragons living in Indonesia's Komodo National Park. Picture: Michael Turtle

The dragon didn't let go. With its mouth clenched shut, teeth ripping into his flesh, Maen had to think fast. He put his other foot onto the neck of the dragon, pinning it down slightly. Then using his hands, he grabbed the animal's mouth and pulled it open. He managed to pull his leg free from its jaws - but one of his hands got bitten in the struggle.

During all of this he had managed to shout out for help. Other rangers came running... but so did more Komodo dragons. They have a remarkable ability to smell blood - sometimes even kilometres away - and so they had been drawn by Maen's injuries.

While some rangers tried to control these new arrivals, two others hurried into the office to rescue their injured friend and hold off the dragon inside. Although they seem quite docile when they're conserving energy, Komodo dragons can be quite fast in attack mode. In normal situations, rangers just use a stick to push them away. Sometimes they just have to run.

"There were about seven dragons, all bigger, waiting there. One other friend pushed away all the dragons with a stick. Then they took me to a jetty and go to Flores Island and get medicine in the hospital."

Maen was taken to hospital at Flores Island, a short boat journey away, before being flown to Bali where he had six hours of emergency treatment. He stayed in hospital there for seven days and then was flown back to Flores Island where he had six months of recovery.

Rangers and Komodo dragons live side by side at Komodo National Park. Picture: Michael Turtle Rangers and Komodo dragons live side by side at Komodo National Park. Picture: Michael Turtle

Eventually he came back to work in Komodo National Park, where there are about 5000 dragons living in the wild. But he only does desk duty so he doesn't have to deal with the animals directly. But he knows the one that attacked him is likely still out there somewhere, potentially circling the camp on any day.

"The dragon, I can't remember which one, he's still alive," Maen says. "But I think now he'll be bigger. If he had a bigger neck then, I couldn't have held it open."

And that could have been the difference between life and death. Let's hope they never come face to face again.


TOPICS: Pets/Animals
KEYWORDS: komododragons
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1 posted on 05/09/2020 11:20:11 PM PDT by nickcarraway
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To: nickcarraway

They are pretty nasty aren’t they? I’ve seen them in the zoo!!


2 posted on 05/09/2020 11:27:22 PM PDT by DarthVader (Not by speeches & majority decisions will the great issues of the day be decided but by Blood & Iron)
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To: nickcarraway

Monsters really do exist.


3 posted on 05/09/2020 11:32:29 PM PDT by Tired of Taxes
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To: nickcarraway

This is what happens when people don’t have the right to keep and bear arms. If there had originally been Komodo dragons in America, our gggrandparents would have wiped them out, and rightly so! Nowadays snowflakes would give them protected species protections.


4 posted on 05/10/2020 12:04:08 AM PDT by LibWhacker
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To: nickcarraway

Do they shed their tails like other lizards?

How long does it take to regrow the tail?

What does the tail taste like?

Can they be farmed for lizard tail meat without killing them?


5 posted on 05/10/2020 12:06:17 AM PDT by CurlyDave
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To: LibWhacker

Or we would have learned how to make them do our bidding?


6 posted on 05/10/2020 12:07:09 AM PDT by nickcarraway
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To: nickcarraway

Komodo, old buddy, go bite that snowflake!!

I like that idea!


7 posted on 05/10/2020 12:28:41 AM PDT by LibWhacker
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To: nickcarraway
Good LORD!! I've seen pics of them before but never had a sense of perspective of scale until now.

Those are NOT terrarium lizards.

8 posted on 05/10/2020 12:53:58 AM PDT by Ciaphas Cain
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To: nickcarraway

A turtle wrote this article.


9 posted on 05/10/2020 12:54:15 AM PDT by Jeff Chandler (BLACK LIVES MAGA)
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To: nickcarraway

Bob and Ray.

That just popped into my head.


10 posted on 05/10/2020 12:56:10 AM PDT by Jeff Chandler (BLACK LIVES MAGA)
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To: LibWhacker

They did with the pterodactyls, called Thunderbirds by the Indians.

https://tse1.mm.bing.net/th?id=OIP.1P1izSBDd5oR74bYvKja5AHaD2&pid=Api


11 posted on 05/10/2020 1:35:19 AM PDT by Secret Agent Man (Gone Galt; Not Averse to Going Bronson.)
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To: Secret Agent Man

Ok, that’s funny right there!


12 posted on 05/10/2020 1:52:59 AM PDT by FreedomPoster (Islam delenda est)
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To: nickcarraway
Their skin must be good for something, meanwhile btwn The Most Venomous Scorpion in North America and 26-Year-Old Man Killed in Shark Attack Off Santa Cruz County Coast and Great White Sharks Return to the Shores of Seacliff State Beach you are distracting viewers from COVIDgeddon and Climate Change!
13 posted on 05/10/2020 3:31:57 AM PDT by daniel1212 (Trust the risen Lord Jesus to save you as a damned and destitute sinner + be baptized + follow Him)
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To: LibWhacker

‘If there had originally been Komodo dragons in America, our gggrandparents would have wiped them out, and rightly so!’

you are in favor of hunting species to extinction...?


14 posted on 05/10/2020 3:38:02 AM PDT by IrishBrigade
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To: nickcarraway

As it later turned out, a cleaner had left the door open and the Komodo dragon had come in overnight looking for food.

::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::

How do they know that he came in looking for food?


15 posted on 05/10/2020 4:31:22 AM PDT by bramps (It's the Islam, stupid!)
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To: bramps

He told them.

“I’m looking for food,” he said.

“and you’re it,” he said.


16 posted on 05/10/2020 4:48:44 AM PDT by FroggyTheGremlim (Plunk your magic twanger, Froggy!)
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To: nickcarraway

I’ve suspected for some time that perhaps this is how T.Rex took down big prey: Inflict a horrific bite that infects the prey, track it as the prey weakens or succumbs, easy dining for a week.


17 posted on 05/10/2020 5:17:58 AM PDT by Paul R. (The Lib / Socialist goal: Total control of nothing left wort h controlling.)
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To: nickcarraway

If you’re in eyesight, shoot.


18 posted on 05/10/2020 5:47:37 AM PDT by Chauncey Gardiner
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To: DarthVader

“And I think this is a problem for me.”

Very understated. Oh yeah, I want to work in a place like “Rattlesnake National Park”.


19 posted on 05/10/2020 5:49:11 AM PDT by Bonemaker (invictus maneo)
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To: Jeff Chandler

Great routine. Interviewer not listening to anything the interviewee says.


20 posted on 05/10/2020 6:11:19 AM PDT by super7man (Madam Defarge, knitting, knitting, always knitting)
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