Dragon Kills Boy
Posted by: Loren Coleman on June 4th, 2007
Dragons on display at the American Museum of Natural History, New York City.
Dragons do roam the Earth. Less than 100 years ago, a population of dragons was discovered hidden away off the coast of mainland Asia.
In 1910, it is said, a Dutch pilot crashed-landed on Komodo, a rugged, volcanic Indonesian island. After his rescue he claimed to have seen an incredibly large lizard, about thirteen feet long [4 meters]. Another story, equally murky in origin, has it that in 1912, a pilot who had safely landed on Komodo returned with stories of monstrous dragons which ate goats and pigs and even attacked horses. Nobody believed him.
What we do know for certain is that in 1912, Lieutenaut Van Steyn van Hensbroek killed a Komodo dragon measuring seven feet long. He sent a photograph and skin to Major P. A. Ouwens, director of the Zoological Museum and Botanical Gardens in Buitenzorg, Java. Ouwens was the first to write up a scientific description of the Komodo dragon. - Beginning of the entry on the “Komodo Dragon,” in Cryptozoology A to Z: The Encyclopedia of Loch Monsters, Sasquatch, Chupacabras, and Other Authentic Mysteries of Nature (NY: Simon and Schuster, 1999).
Today, Komodo dragons (Varanus komodoensis), a cryptozoology discovery, are displayed in zoos and part of zoology textbooks. They are no longer fantastic, or are they?
A Komodo dragon has mauled a boy to death in eastern Indonesia, police said today.
Mansur, 9, was defecating in bush on Komodo island, part of the Komodo national park, on Saturday, when he was attacked by the animal, Manggarai barat district police chief Buce Hello said.
“The Komodo attacked him, bit him and tossed him around, and only released him after villagers came and threw stones at it,” Hello said.
The island, one of the largest in the Komodo national park, has no medical clinic and the boy, a villager, died shortly after the attack, he said.
The park and the western and northern coastlines of neighbouring Flores island are the natural habitats of the giant Komodo dragon, which is the world’s largest monitor lizard.
The lizard can grow up to three metres in length and weigh up to 140 kilograms.
There are an estimated 3000 Komodo dragons remaining in the park and surrounding areas, and although they are known to be vicious and aggressive, fatal attacks on humans are rare. “Komodo Dragon Kills Boy,” The Sydney Morning Herald, June 4, 2007.
I’m not sure whether or not the only comfort I can truly take in this life is that I’m not at the top of the food chain everywhere I go.
But I suspect it to be true.
Its a shame someone had to die in an encounter with these modern day “dragons”. Even a dragon ignorant american such as myself knows you should be on guard at all times in thier territory. From what im led to believe, the dragons have a rather filthy mouth, and thier bloodstreams contain countless bacteria fatal to humankind. I understand they “gum” severely before biting an animal, and in so doing, they produce blood around and inside the mouth, thus making a kind of toxic soup, a plethora of unpleasant germs/bacteria which they use to disable and kill prey. I myself wouldnt venture even remotely close to any big lizard i saw that was staring intently and me, and drooling alot. Course, as i said, shame a person, let alone a young one, fell victim to an attack by the dragon, but in retrospect, we might at least take confort in thinking it was the violence of the mauling that killed the child, and not the slow unpleasant alternative, toxic shock.
Rap
Well that’s certainly something to keep in mind the next time I’m taking a bathroom break in the bushes in Indonesia. Seriously, though, I hope this incident does not spark a panic and cause people to think that these animals are all man hunters. As human settlements come into closer contact with nature, there are bound to be a few run ins with the wildlife, but remember that these are not evil monsters out to get us. They are just animals trying to survive in this world just like us. More than the occassional attack on humans, I would dread the day where there is no worry about these incidents because there are no more creatures like this left.
Komodo Dragons natural prey are deer, goats and pig, approach with caution. Homo Florensis, the little people lived on the same island with these big blokes, perhaps they are still around in the forests of Indonesia.
It’s not the first human fatality and it won’t be the last.
Poor Kid. Imagine his fear? What a bummer. You would think he would of been a little more cautious, being a villager, and knowing them things are out there. I know when ya gotta go ya gotta go, but man. Poor Kid.
Speaking of long, painful infections, I recall reading about a man bitten by a Komodo Dragon who dies from his infected wound…7 years later. The wound never healed, and continued to weep pus for all that time. Either he had some pretty top-notch antibiotics that the bacteria only gradually became resistant to, or he had one heckuva immune system!
The komodo dragon generally relies on the bacterial toxicity of its bite to down its prey. What it bites, generally dies later from the infection that develops and the komodo simply follows it prey until it drops. Not a nice way to go.
Now, if only someone could photograph a Megalania Prisca. Every now and then one of these Australian/New Guinean Cryptids gets spotted. The Megalania is monstrous, up to 30 feet long. They make the komodo look small. I think a few more Varanids will be discovered over the coming years.