The creature is a Komodo dragon, the world's laargest monitor lizard, so called because they supposedly warn crocodiles of the approach of man. Several thounsand of them wander freely on Komodo Island as well as parts of the Indonesian islands Rintja, Padar, and Flores.

These isolated islands provide an ideal habitat for the Komodo dragon, consisting of monsoon forests and savannah grasslands where game is plentiful. They feed on the dead and rotted flesh of goats, wild pigs, water buffalo, rusa deer, and feral horses. The giant lizard has even been known to feed on human copses if given the opportunity.

Although it is believed that Komodo dragons reaching twenty feet or more in lenght do exist on the island, the largest that have actually been observed are about ten feet long. these large lizards are very dangerous and will attact and eat any smaller creatures they can corner. The large monitors are not very fast, and most humans can outrun them. Some peoples, however, have not been so fortunate.

According to a 1972 article by Walter Auffenberg in the magazine Natural History, "People have been bitten in the shoulder or neck as they slept on the ground during the daytime. Others were attacked from behind while working in the bush." One person died in an unprovoked attact by a Komodo dragon, while another succumbed to a bacterial infection of bite wounds inflicted by the large lizard.

Auffenberg found that most of the huge monitor lizards avoided contact with humans, but some were very aggressive, entering tents and shelters and attacking people. Needless to say, residents of the island are always on the alert for these giant creatures!

Who said dinosaurs are extinct? On Komodo Island, the past merges with the present in the form of these remarkable, dangerous, and frightening creatures.

It is believed that some Komodo dragons

reach twenty feet