Komodo National Park is located in the center of the Indonesian archipelago, between the islands of Sumbawa and Flores. Established in 1980, initially the main purpose of the Park was to conserve the unique Komodo dragon (Varanus komodoensis) and its habitat. However, over the years, the goals for the Park have expanded to protecting its entire biodiversity, both terrestrial and marine. In 1986, the Park was declared a World Heritage Site and a Man and Biosphere Reserve by UNESCO, both indications of the Park's biological importance.
Komodo National Park includes three major islands: Komodo, Rinca and Padar, as well as numerous smaller islands creating a total surface area (marine and land) of 1817km. As well as being home to the Komodo dragon, the Park provides refuge for many other notable terrestrial species such as the orange-footed scrub fowl, an endemic rat, and the Timor deer. Moreover, the Park includes one of the richest marine environments including coral reefs, mangroves, seagrass beds, seamounts, and semi-enclosed bays. These habitats harbor more than 1,000 species of fish, some 260 species of reef-building coral, and 70 species of sponges. Dugong, sharks, manta rays, at least 14 species of whales, dolphins, and sea turtles also make Komodo National Park their home.

Komodo Island and its dragons: Among the thousands of small islands of Indonesia is one called Komodo, a mountainous stretch of volcanic rock covered with grass, palms, and small pockets of jungle. This little island, 35 km long, along with a few others nearby, is the sole habitat of the world's largest lizard. The people of Komodo call this animal "ora". Elsewhere it is known as the Komodo Island monitor or more popularly, the Komodo dragon. Oras can reach 10 feet in length and weigh 300 pounds or more particularly after a meal. They are the top predators in their habitat, feeding on wild boar, deer, water buffalo, dogs, goats, rats, snakes, birds, other oras, and once in a great while humans. They hunt by ambush, hiding in the scrub brush along trails and in the tall grass of the savannas. Despite their lumbering appearance, oras can move with alarming speed when they want to, lunging from their hiding places and sprinting toward their startled victims. They can't sustain a long chase, but often all they need to subdue their prey is one bite. Oras carry poisonous bacteria in their mouths so even if they don't immediately catch their prey, the attack is often fatal. Using their long forked tongues (oras and other monitor lizards are closely related to snakes), they track the scent of their prey as the wounded animal slowly weakens from the infected bite , a process that can take several days. When the victim can no longer flee, the ora moves in for the kill. Oras are voracious eaters. They devour every bit of their prey, bones, fur, hooves, ripping off huge chunks with their razor-sharp serrated teeth and swallowing the pieces whole. Like all predators, oras serve an important ecological function: they preserve ecological stability by ensuring that prey species (deer, for example) don't overpopulate and degrade their island habitat. Oras are reptiles. They don't need to eat as often as big mammalian predators, such as tigers. As a result, the small island of Komodo can support quite a few of these giant monitor lizards, their total population on the island is estimated at about 4,000 to 5,000 animals. The ora population includes only about 350 breeding females. And as human populations grow, the ora's limited habitat shrinks. On some islands, the coexistence between people and giant lizards is an increasingly uneasy one. Komodo Island is now a popular ecotourist attraction. The Indonesian government is attempting to regulate this traffic so that disruption of the oras is kept to a minimum.

Copyright Jean-Marc Michel. Use of any image is strictly forbidden without my explicit written permission.

The images on the site are available for sale as fine art prints and also as stock images.
For more information please contact me at jeanmarcmichelmy@yahoo.fr