Myths and the monitor - Dunia Baru Adventures
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50 Indonesia 51
Myths and the
monitor
The Komodo dragon has fired imaginations for millennia and
even today continues to be misunderstood while being very much
the apex predator in the group of islands it calls home.
Story and photography by Mark Eveleigh
— May/June 2018 May/June 2018 —
52 Indonesia 53
A PLAICE (?) IN THE SUN
The day’s catch sits drying.
Fishing is allowed at subsistance
level only within the protected
waters of the national park.
“A BIG ORA KILLED A GOAT RIGHT HERE IN THE VILLAGE JUST names for the dragons (surely a common topic of conversation) differ: the
yesterday,” said a Komodo elder, using the islanders’ traditional word for the reptiles are known as ora on Komodo, but as mbau on Rinca. The story goes
island’s famous dragons. “In 2007, a 10-year-old boy was killed while playing that the king naturally assumed that the dragons would kill the exiles but
soccer in the village so we’re very careful that the children don’t stray far.” they found a way to survive (mostly) even while the mighty dragons’ hunting
Just 10 minutes before I had arrived a dragon had been seen prowling skills allowed them to bring down wild horses and the 600-kilogram water
around the old Muslim graveyard at the edge of the village and the warning buffalo that graze on the island.
call – “Ora! Ora!” – had sent the children scurrying home. It had been five days since I had first climbed onto the polished teak
The old man, who introduced himself as Pak Man, was sitting on the deck of my palatial floating home, the Dunia Baru, in Bali. Lombok slipped
steps of his stilted hut as he recounted the unusual risks inherent to daily life past unnoticed in the darkness as we sipped cocktails on the stern that first
in Komodo village. Most of the huts here are raised on stilts, and for good evening. During the next few days, we stopped several times to explore
reason: in 2014 a dragon attacked and seriously injured a ranger inside the remote communities among the chain of islands along the north coast
office at the National Park HQ on neighbouring Rinca Island. of Sumbawa. Dolphins leaped in our bow wave, whales breached on the
In recent years the Komodo archipelago has become one of Indonesia’s horizon and we dined one evening under a crimson sky that was peppered
most popular tourist drawcards yet few of the trekkers, sailors and divers with the devilish silhouettes of several thousand flying foxes, flapping about
who travel to Komodo National Park ever take time to explore the local on metre-wide wingspans.
communities who have made a home in the lair of the dragon. “For anyone with an interest in wildlife and a love of adventure in
HERE BE NO DRAGONS Local folklore has it that the islanders were originally transported here general this area’s hard to beat,” the ship’s Cruise Director, Sebastien Pierre,
This rickety jetty is the only as rebels, sent into exile by a king of Sumbawa. It seems unlikely that the said as we passed Sangeang Api volcano the next afternoon. A wisp of smoke
‘dragon-free’ access to Rinca Village.
islanders of Komodo and Rinca would share a common origin if even their feathered the cone of the volcano and the lower flank was shrouded with
— May/June 2018zh May/June 2018 —
54 Indonesia 55
gasps of steam as molten lava slumped into the sea. We skipped on under a Walter Auffenberg watched buffalos dying after being bitten by dragons and,
full head of sail as the fabled Komodo Archipelago loomed on the horizon. without any real evidence, suggested that they had died because of deadly
For many of the thousands of visitors drawn each year to Komodo, its bacteria in the dragon’s bite.
attraction is multiplied by visiting it on board a graceful phinisi such as the “Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence,” says Dr Bryan
Dunia Baru. A style of craft built in Indonesia for centuries, the phinisi offers G. Fry, a scientist at the University of Queensland and a world authority on
an ‘age-of-exploration’ feel as well as a chance to dive the Coral Triangle, the venom. “Bacteria-as-a-weapon would have been an unprecedented form
recognised global centre of marine biodiversity. The Caribbean is considered of predation strategy. Yet, it was instantly accepted simply because it was
one of our planet’s greatest diving areas, yet it boasts just 50 species of coral: enchanting . . . just like most fairy tales.”
the Coral Triangle, comprised largely of Indonesian waters, boasts 750 Most people continue to believe that this is how the dragon kills its
species (of the estimated world total of 850). prey and many guides in the islands still trot out this theory despite recent
Primarily though, visitors are lured by a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity scientific evidence refuting it. The fact that it took half a century to look into
to see Varanus komodoensis, the world’s biggest lizard, in its natural habitat. Auffenberg’s hypothesis is in part a testimony to the splendid isolation of
This was my fifth trip to the islands of Komodo National Park but still I this island hideaway. More importantly, the bacteria hypothesis (no more
strained my eyes for the first glimpse of those dramatic, savannah-covered than a wild guess) was so widely accepted that for years many zoos refused
hills, dappled with the tousled heads of lontar palms. permission to undertake studies because they believed it was already proven.
Arriving in this strange land always brings a tingle of excitement. Komodo dragons are voracious cannibals so dragon carcasses are rarely
It’s not just the dragons that mark it out as somewhere special: the entire found even on the islands and it wasn’t until 2009 that Dr Fry dissected
environment of Komodo, Padar and Rinca islands, as well as the 26 smaller two dragon heads and shocked the scientific world by discovering venom
islands encompassed by the park, is distinct from those of the larger glands in the lower jaws. Furthermore, he isolated five individual toxins in
neighbouring islands of Sumbawa and Flores. Lying in the rain-shadow of dragon saliva – capable of promoting anti-coagulation, painful cramping,
these two huge islands, Komodo’s dry hills are distinct from the jungle-clad hemorrhaging, shock and unconsciousness. While showing conclusively that
volcanic peaks of Sumbawa and a world away from the riot of vegetation of the killer-bacteria story was no more real than the fire-breathing one, Fry’s
the Flores highlands. At first glance the sparse landscape is more reminiscent evidence proved that the Komodo dragon is officially the world’s biggest
of Africa – perhaps fitting as a land where the resident predators have such venomous reptile.
a hold on our imagination. Old sailing charts were sometimes marked with The biggest living dragon ever measured (an obese example) was more
the foreboding words: ‘Here be Dragons’ and it is said that the flickering than three metres long and weighed 166kg. The spectacular size of the
tongues of the Komodo dragons gave rise to the first Chinese myths about world’s largest lizard is often described as an evolutionary adaptation – not SIZING UP THE THREAT
fire-breathing dragons. to the recently introduced buffalo which they now hunt – but to the extinct Experts believe the dragons evolved to such size to
hunt now-extinct pygmy elephants. Today, children
Even today, modern myths abound. In 1969 the American naturalist pygmy elephants that once formed a part of their diet on these islands.
play in front of Komodo village (above), their
parents aware that potential killers lurk close by.
However, fossils of prehistoric Komodos in Australia suggest that the size told me therefore that the forest Yadi and I were trekking through was likely
of these monsters probably remained more-or-less stable during the period being stalked by at least 10 dragons for every square kilometre.
that they co-existed with the island elephants. Furthermore, unlike most big cats, dragons have no reason to fear
Most visitors trek on Komodo itself, but I’d opted for lesser-known humans. They are the undisputed lords of this island domain and as visitors
Rinca, two-thirds the size of Komodo, with a bigger population of dragons. increasingly roam across the islands, there are fears that attacks are likely to
As Sir David Attenborough says of the region on BBC’s Planet Earth: “We become more common. In 2017 a Singaporean tourist was seriously bitten,
don’t need tales of Jurassic Park and velociraptors to see a reptile-dominated and during a particularly bad spate in 2013, five locals were attacked on Rinca.
world. It’s all still here.” It is still commonly reported that little Padar Island (just five kilometres
Early one morning as I set off into a densely forested valley, I thought long and lying between Rinca and Komodo) is devoid of dragons yet I’d
of all the treks I’d ever done in Africa where the accepted advice had always seen their unmistakable tracks on the beaches there as far back as 2015.
been never to go anywhere without an armed guard in case of a run-in with Later a ranger told me that in 2014 – without thinking to inform the boat
a hungry predator. Here I had only Yadi, the Indonesian national park ranger charters who habitually use Padar’s beaches as a ‘dragon-free’ picnic spot –
who was guiding me, armed with a forked stick. the national park services had re-located three aggressive animals which had
I couldn’t help noticing, however, that Yadi was also wearing a very been involved in attacks on Rinca.
sporty pair of Nike running shoes: “I’ve been chased a few times,” he I’d often witnessed the astonishment of visitors who had gathered to
admitted, “but I have faith in Allah and believe that my god will protect me.” watch what admittedly do look to be corpulent, lazy lizards sunbathing
I wondered silently if Yadi’s god might spare a thought for me too. around the ranger stations, only to see an incredible turn of speed and
As we walked through a shadowy mangrove swamp, my head was aggression as a full-sized komodo pursued hapless prey, even into trees.
uncharacteristically occupied with maths. I found it somewhat reassuring Catching sight of a full-sized komodo lumbering out of the shadows
that of the 31 people who had been attacked by dragons since records were of the mangroves, I recalled the supposed reassuring words of Dr Tim
started (in 1974) only five attacks had been fatal. Two-thirds of the attacks, Jessop, an ecologist at Australia’s Deakin University and scientific advisor to
however, had taken place on Rinca. Komodo Survival Program. “The dragons probably aren’t actively hunting
I knew that while dragons roam far and wide, they tend to concentrate humans,” he said, “but if a person gets in the way of a hungry dragon…well,
on habitat that is favourable to their ambush technique. More simple maths what’s not to like from the dragon’s culinary point of view?” AA
— May/June 2018 May/June 2018 —
56 Indonesia 57
Underwater Komodo
The Cruise Director on the Dunia Baru,
Sebastien Pierre, calls the area of the Coral
Triangle around Komodo, “one of the most
exciting places on the planet” for divers.
A glance at a diving map reveals more
than 50 recognised spots concentrated
PHOTO: CHRISTIAN LOADER/SCUBA KOMODO
in a small and accessible area of some of
the world’s most colourful and biodiverse
reef. Profiles range from shotgun dives
through fast-flowing channels to gentle
drifts while the area also offers encounters
with large pelagic fish, dugongs, cetaceans
and schools of manta rays and sharks.
Rare sightings have included whale sharks
and even the megamouth (Megachasma
pelagios) – one of the rarest sharks in the
world with only 60 global sightings ever.
PRACTICALITIES
When to go
The best time to visit Komodo is in the dry season between April and late night, including dives, trekking with dragons (on Komodo and Rinca)
November. The dragons are visible at any time but seas can be choppy and other watersports.
and visibility is bad during the rainy season. Backyard Travel, www.backyardtravel.com, offers a seven-day ‘Walk
on the Wild Side: Flores and Komodo’ tour from US$1,379 per person.
How to get there There are also numerous day-boats that visit the islands from Labuan
The Dunia Baru, www.duniabaru.com, carries 14 guests in palatial Bajo on Flores, starting from under US$100 per day.
comfort and boasts a fully equipped dive centre and other watersports
gear. Whole-ship charters – with 18 crew, food, fuel, diving and all Further info
running costs – start from US$13,170 per day. www.komodonationalpark.org is the official website of Komodo National
Many other liveaboards offer Komodo itineraries, some including Park. Come here for info on the dragons.
diving as well as visits onshore. Secret Retreats offers cruises on the www.indoyachts.com is a great source of information on boat charters in
Nyaman Boat, www.secret-retreats.com, from US$400 per person per the archipelago and on travel around Komodo.
— May/June 2018 May/June 2018 —
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