The Komodo dragon is the largest living lizard. It is a kind of monitor lizard, and it lives only on a few islands in Indonesia, in tropical savanna forests. Males grow larger than females, and most wild Komodo dragons weigh about 154 pounds. The heaviest one that was measured and checked weighed 366 pounds, and the longest one was 10.3 feet long. It has large, curved teeth with serrated edges, long claws and a big, strong tail.

Every Komodo dragon begins in an egg. A female lays about 30 eggs. The eggs take about eight months to hatch. Some females lay their eggs in nest mounds that birds called megapodes built. After they hatch, baby Komodo dragons climb trees and live in them. A young one eats small animals such as lizards, insects and geckos. A young Komodo dragon is green with yellow and black bands, while an adult is dull brown or gray and lives and hunts alone.

A grown Komodo dragon waits quietly in one spot for food to come by, and it eats deer as well as dead animals that it finds. It can eat up to 80 percent of its own weight in one meal. At night it rests in a burrow. It finds food mainly by its sense of smell, using its long, forked tongue to sample the air. It can see things as far as 300 meters away. Its hearing range is smaller than a person's.

Venom is another tool the Komodo dragon has. Its venom glands are in its lower jaw, and the venom keeps blood from clotting and lowers blood pressure. Scientists reject the old idea that bacteria in its mouth help it hunt. In 1980, Indonesia set up Komodo National Park. As of November 2026, the Komodo dragon is listed as endangered, and its wild home is on a few islands.

Words to know

• serrated: with tiny notches
• megapodes: mound-building birds
• burrow: ground hole
• venom: poison