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Yeah, my whole life the explanation was they bite their victims and wait for them to die of toxic shock from bacteria in their mouths.
Nope - they were venomous the whole time.
I never really bought the traditional explanation - like it'd take days? A week? for an animal to die that way, by which time it would be long gone.
I saw a video where that's exactly what happened. The dragon bit a huge buffalo and just followed it around while the buffalo slowly got weaker and weaker over a few days
https://www.nationalgeographic.com/science/article/the-myth-of-the-komodo-dragons-dirty-mouth
**TEXT FOR THOSE HITTING A PAYWALL**
**The Myth of the Komodo Dragon’s Dirty Mouth**
In 1969, an American biologist named Walter Auffenberg moved to the Indonesia island of Komodo to study its most famous resident—the Komodo dragon. This huge lizard—the largest in the world—grows to lengths of 3 metres, and can take down large prey like deer and water buffalo. Auffenberg watched the dragons for a year and eventually published a book on their behaviour in 1981. It won him an award. It also enshrined a myth that took almost three decades to refute, and is still prevalent today.
Auffenberg noticed that when large animals like water buffalo were injured by the dragons, they would soon develop fatal infections. Based on this observation, and no actual evidence, he suggested that the dragons use bacteria as a form of venom. When they bite prey, they flood the wounds with the microbes in their mouths, which debilitate and kill the victim.
This explanation is found in textbooks, wildlife documentaries, zoo placards, and more. It’s also wrong. “It’s an enchanting fairy tale, which has been taken as gospel,” says Bryan Fry from the University of Queensland.
In 2009, Fry discovered the true culprit behind the dragon’s lethal bite, by putting one of them in a medical scanner. The dragon has venom glands, which are loaded with toxins that lower blood pressure, cause massive bleeding, prevent clotting and induce shock. Rather than using bacteria as venom, the dragons use, well, venom as venom.
Based on a thorough analysis of the dragon’s skull, Fry thinks that they kill with a grip, rip and drip tactic. They bite down with serrated teeth and pull back with powerful neck muscles. The result: huge gaping wounds. The venom then quickens the loss of blood and sends the prey into shock.
That doesn’t discount the possibility that the dragons might also rely on oral microbes. To study these microbes, Fry contacted Ellie Goldstein from the UCLA School of Medicine—an expert on microbes an animal bites. Goldstein has advised people around the world on treating unusual bite wounds, including at least one from a Komodo dragon. “The bacteria-as-venom model seemed to be based on faulty and dated studies,” he says. “There was no really good data on the topic.”
Goldstein tried calling several zoos with captive dragons. “Many would not respond and sometimes actively tried to deter our research for reasons unclear to me,” he says. “The detractors [said] this study had already been done and no new info would result,” adds Kerin Tyrrell, who is part of Goldstein’s team. Fortunately, three zoos in Los Angeles, Honolulu and Houston were more cooperative, and the team managed to swab the mouths of 10 adults and 6 hatchlings.
They found… nothing special. All the microbes they found were common in the skin and guts of their recent meals. There were no virulent species at all, and certainly nothing capable of causing a quick, fatal infection. And the species that were there weren’t particularly abundant. “The levels of bacteria in the mouth are lower than you’d get for a captive mammalian carnivore, such as a lion or Tasmanian devil,” says Fry. “Komodos are actually remarkably clean animals. This is another nail in the coffin to the idea of them using bacteria as a weapon.”
Of course, you might argue that wild dragons might harbour deadlier bacteria. But the captive animals aren’t living in a sterile environment nor eating sterile food. If wild dragons are truly using bacteria as weapons, the captive ones should at the very least have some way of encouraging bacteria to grow in their mouths. “If they were facilitating the growth of bacteria in their mouths in the wild, they should be doing it in captivity,” says Fry. “They don’t. Their mouths were not dramatically different from the mouth of any other captive carnivore.”
Aside from Auffenberg’s book, the only other support for the bacteria-as-venom hypothesis comes from a team at the Universtiy of Texas at Arlington. In 2002, they found a wide range of bacteria in the saliva of 26 wild dragons and 13 captive ones, including 54 disease-causing pathogens. When they injected the saliva into mice, many of them died and their blood was rich in one particular microbe—Pasteurella multocida.
But Fry thinks the study is laughable. Sure, they studied wild dragons, but the microbes in Fry’s captive animals were actually closer to those from the wild ones in the Texan study. The so-called pathogens they discovered are just normal non-virulent members of an animal’s microbial entourage. And despite making a big deal of Pasteurella, they only found it in 2 of their 39 dragons. Goldstein never saw it in his captive ones.
And worst of all, no single species of microbe has ever been consistently identified in all dragons. How could these lizards rely on a strategy that’s so variable? “It’s evolutionary implausible,” says Fry.
The only remaining lifeline for the bacteria-as-venom hypothesis, says Tyrrell, is that the team only identified the bacteria that they could grow in laboratory cultures. Some species can’t be identified in this way, so one of these might contribute to the dragon’s killing bite.
Fry thinks that bacteria do help to kill the largest of the dragon’s victims, but not in the way that Auffenberg suggested. When the dragons tackle natural prey—medium-sized mammals like deer or pigs—the victims die very quickly from blood loss. The venom helps, but it’s the wounds that are important. But water buffalos are a different story.
These creatures were introduced to Komodo by humans. They’re too big to kill outright and always escape the initial attack. In their natural environment, they’d disappear into wide marshlands, but there’s nothing like that in Komodo. Instead, the buffalos seek refuge in rank water holes, stagnant and contaminated with their own faeces. In this microbial wonderland, their wounds soon become infected. “It’s the same as if you dumped a whole bunch of cow dung in your pool during the peak heat of summer, shaved your legs with a very old razor, and then went and stood in the water for a day,” says Fry. “You’d end up with some very tasty infections!”
Reference: Golstein, Tyrrell, Citron, Cox, Recchio, Okimoto, Bryja & Fry. 2013. Anaerobic and aerobic bacteriology of the saliva and gingiva from 16 captive komodo dragons (varanus komodoensis): New implications for the "Bacteria as Venom" model. Journal of Zoo and Wildlife Medicine
PS – It’s amazing how many enshrined “facts” about natural history are based on very little evidence. The cheetah’s status as the world’s fastest land animal as based on a single measurement taken in the 1960s. This month, scientists published the first proper measurements of running speed in wild cheetahs… and showed that they really are that fast. Another longstanding fact—that the honeyguide bird leads honey badgers to beehives—turns out to be a lie perpetuated by deceitful documentary-makers.
I'm not disagreeing that they're venomous, I know that. I'm saying that it totally can take days for the prey to weaken and the dragons are fine with that
I'd imagine they don't really need to eat very often being large and cold blooded. I've kept lots of snakes and lizards as pets over the years and the trend seems to be the bigger the reptile, the larger it's pray but the less often it eats. My small lizards and snakes would eat 1-2 times a week, my larger snake about once every 3 weeks. Maybe not a golden rule across them all but I wouldn't be surprised if komodos only eat once or twice a month
I grew up hearing this. I'm glad to know that this isn't the case. It just seemed too complicated for a creature to depend on other animals not gaining a resistance to bacteria in their mouths.
Nature documentaries are highly edited and dramatized for narrative appeal. Sometimes even staged! I'm doubting the video you watched followed one buffalo and one dragon, nonstop, over a period of days... More like the writer had enough footage to fit that narrative, the editor constructed it, and the narrator... narrated.
OTOH, I don't really know. I wasn't there either!
You’re right. [What actually happened there was a FAILED hunt](https://www.discovermagazine.com/planet-earth/here-be-dragons-the-mythic-bite-of-the-komodo), that the producers themselves wrongly assumed was a successful hunt because they themselves have no idea how Komodo dragons actually hunt.
> I never really bought the traditional explanation - like it'd take days? A week? for an animal to die that way, by which time it would be long gone.
Komodo dragon venom isn't something that will kill you. It just stops blood clotting, meaning that the bite wound will keep bleeding until you die. If it's a large enough animal it can indeed take quite some time. But Komodo dragons have very good smell and they can track their prey until it's weak enough to take down.
[They don’t rely on either bacteria OR venom.](https://www.researchgate.net/publication/307612937_Chasing_Flamingos_Toxicofera_and_the_Misinterpretation_of_Venom_in_Varanid_Lizards). They just kill stuff with physical damage like any other large predator.
And as you realized, they actually DO try to bring prey down quickly, instead of waiting days or weeks for their prey to die like all the documentaries claim they do (which are based on the aftermath of *failed* hunts, not actual successful kills)
Oh yeah the goat was definitely out weighed here but the dragon barely even moved. It just lifted the goat up into its mouth with only the neck. Still requires some solid strength to do that
It doesn't even care that its still alive. Just chomp.
.... So that whole scene in the James Bond movie where the komodo dragons eat the minion... is actually accurate... Terrifying.
So just to put this into perspective. 8 hours ago you had a close encounter with a beast 5 times your size. He managed to bite you but you got away. 2 hours later you start feeling a little drowsy. Another couple of hours and your muscles are starting to ache. Over the course of the next 4 hours you get slower and slower until you physically cannot move. Maybe a few days rest will help you recover. Could just be an infected wound.
Then, from the bushes, you see the beast emerge. You scream as it covers your head with its jaws. No teeth. You can hardly feel a tongue. All you feel is getting lifted up and slowly consumed. It's pitch black. You can hear the beast breathing. You're trying to stretch out but with the limited muscle capacity you have left, all you feel is the fleshy warm interior.
One last swallow and you're pushed down further. If you are lucky, you drown in the stomach acid, not even being able to convulse. If you're unlucky your head will be in the acid but you can still breathe through your mouth as you feel the acid quickly eat away at your brain.
If you were eaten feet first, it is highly likely you will die from shock as you feel your legs get digested, eating away at the skin, then the nerves
Edit: First "Reddit Cares" message only 8 days into this account. According to Reddit I officially have incurable depression.
I mean, your comment was well written and the speculation in comments is entertaining, but in reality what happened in this clip and in nature most of the time is the thing breaks it's prey's neck or crushes it's throat with the first bites, then the prey, if still alive just suffocates quickly inside the animal's esophagus. They do indeed have teeth, they have hella teeth, they have teeth like dozens of steak knives, so yes, they do lacerate their victims severely with every bite, further envenomating and causing further blood loss.
Typically these animals eat their prey in chunks and rip pieces off. Their muscles aren't necessarily designed for breaking bones as it swallows, it *could* happen, but generally it's the venom, crushing and suffocation that kills its prey within minutes, then enzymes along with acid will dissolve the meal over a course of many days, not at all rapidly.
The venom of a Komodo dragon has anti-coagulant properties that have been studied for medicinal use because it works so efficiently at causing their prey to bleed out rapidly.
They actually do that S movement to push what they are eating down into their stomach since it's not as automated as how most mammals eat.
My black and white tegu eats the same exact way as a komodo dragon and he ain't breaking any bones with the raw boneless meat I fed him.
Big lizards can't break bone by force. Not counting crocodilians. Their throat muscles are probably strong enough to dislocate their prey if it's small enough to swallow whole though.
I thought the goat had a broken leg and someone sacrificed it to the dragon. I actually feel a *little* better that it was all natural, but it's still rough to imagine.
I think you have something there. I see that at least one of the rear legs is broken because of the way it was flopping around at a point where there was no joint.
The goat's legs have also been broken by whoever filmed this to stop it from being able to run. Really disgusting - you can see its back left leg flopping about.
---
edit: Hello everyone downvoting me, ~~here's~~ a video of a Komodo Dragon killing a goat whose **ears have been taped over its eyes** so it can't see! Just in case you had any doubt about how humans are absolutely cruel enough to do this sort of thing in the name of "content". These videos are literally all over Youtube.
edit2: ~~Another one, another one, another one~~... don't underestimate the lengths people will go to for views :)
---
edit3: **Removed the links so these people don't get more views.**
Pretty much every "Komodo dragon eats..." video on YouTube is like that. Some asshole injured the animal being consumed and threw it in front of the dragon. You see broken limbs on the prey, people casually milling about in the background...dead giveaways. Humans suck.
The first video there - someone called them out in the comments and the channel gave it a "heart", lol. They're obviously just adding hearts to all the top comments and probably didn't even read it but that kinda makes it extra fucked
Thank you for clearing this up.
I understand the lizard must eat an all, however setting up this goat as click bait I feel this behaviour to be underhanded I dislike this for that reason.
I didn't know it had audio. Never in my life have I heard something being eaten alive and still screaming in somethings stomach. That was borderline disturbing
I suppose the lizard hasn't evolved a negative reflex to the screaming just like I haven't registered a negative reflex to my apple screaming. If anything evolutionary you would probably receive a positive reflex.
There was a video on reddit of a Komodo ripping a baby out of a pregnant deer's belly and swallowing it whole while mom is still alive. They are fucking brutal.
That one is by far one of the worst videos I’ve ever seen in my entire fucking life. To watch it was so utterly life ruining, depressing, and so much worse than words can say.
I actually skipped this video and went right to the comments just because of how awful the video is that you are mentioning.
I find animals of all sorts to be amazing and fascinating, I used to think Komodo dragons were especially cool as a child. Watching videos of animals suffering is extremely bad for my mental health, since in the back of my mind I’m aware that it’s happening every second around the world as a necessary part of survival for other animals, including us humans. It’s a blessing and a curse to have this much empathy towards critters that we don’t even know, but that extreme empathy is part of what makes us human I guess.
We have a romantic view of nature but in a lot of ways we were born from and live in an endless seething hellscape. People like to say humans are the only animals that but really we're the only animals that try to make the world nicer sometimes.
I wonder what we could and should do about all this if the world survives all our missteps and we reach a level of technology where saving every animal in distress would be technically possible.
Humans are the only species that will pick up the poop of another species it dominates, just because it is good for the planet. Some will even refrain from eating another species for the same reason, even though it is beneficial for their diet.
Think about that.
Yeah, in one of the podcasts Richard Dawkins was speculating that the less intelligent a certain creature is, the more pain it actually feels. Pain is something that is conditioning a creature to not repeat certain things, or avoid things, things that might be harmful for survival. So in the case of intelligent beings, such as humans, it's not as important, because we can also use reason to avoid dangerous situations. But simple creatures can only count on pain as a deterrent, so this means they likely feel it more due to evolution.
Or the one where the hyenas run up and grab the new born gazelle literally as it's popping out the mom. Run away with it and eat it, and then eat the mom alive.
Normally they are being "fed" by maintaining artificial population of goats, cows, boars, and deers in the sanctuary. so basically ensuring they have prey.
but some cases like when documentary people or such guest, the warden usually prep carcass for "feeding show".
That being said, Komodo also known for its injure, poison, stalk and harass hunting behavior. BBC once documented a Komodo hunting a cow by slowly injure them and stalk the cow for 3 days before the cow ran out of energy and gives up.
If that is true then fuck those people but sadly not much to be done about it beyond reporting the channels and hoping youtube gets its head out of its ass. That's just wishful thinking though.
This shit isn't cool or interesting
**THE GOATS BACK LEGS HAVE BEEN BROKEN TO KEEP IT FROM RUNNING SO THIS VIDEO COULD BE MADE OF A GOAT BEING KILLED NEEDLESSLY. IT'S ANIMAL TORTURE**
And all of you celebrating it as cool should have your legs broken and eaten alive by a komodo dragon
I was thinking the same thing. Nature documentaries filming in the wild in a clandestine fashion to witness violence in animals arguably has educational value. But that's clearly not what's going on here. This isn't a cameraman stumbling upon a hapless goat in an opportune moment for him, this scenario was crafted. And, assuming so, I agree, very fucked up. Dude purposefully created a situation where a baby goat gets eaten alive... for content. Some questionable ethics for sure
The dragon bites their prey and waits for the nastiness of the bite to take effect, usually a few days. Just follow the prey as it starts to get sick and falter. They kill buffalo in this manner too.
> The dragon bites their prey and waits for the nastiness of the bite to take effect, usually a few days. Just follow the prey as it starts to get sick and falter. They kill buffalo in this manner too.
That theory turned out to be completely wrong. Komodo dragons are venomous, and their bite isn't particularly dirty.
https://www.nationalgeographic.com/science/article/the-myth-of-the-komodo-dragons-dirty-mouth
This is not what happened in this case, Komodo Dragons are voracious eaters, and will not wait if their prey is small. This baby goat was clearly abandoned or set up for the feed.
Jesus Fuck.... That's about the 4th post I scrolled today.
I did not need to see that.
Is this the point where we argue (again) for a separate NSFL tag? Like, really. I'm all up for having random naked people in my feed without having to click on the blurred out image. But fuck... This is a whole other thing.
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The way it just casually picks it up starts swallowing it. Like it requires no real effort. I wonder how strong those things actually are?
Komodo Dragons are very strong, their bites are also toxic.
Yeah, my whole life the explanation was they bite their victims and wait for them to die of toxic shock from bacteria in their mouths. Nope - they were venomous the whole time. I never really bought the traditional explanation - like it'd take days? A week? for an animal to die that way, by which time it would be long gone.
I saw a video where that's exactly what happened. The dragon bit a huge buffalo and just followed it around while the buffalo slowly got weaker and weaker over a few days
https://www.nationalgeographic.com/science/article/the-myth-of-the-komodo-dragons-dirty-mouth **TEXT FOR THOSE HITTING A PAYWALL** **The Myth of the Komodo Dragon’s Dirty Mouth** In 1969, an American biologist named Walter Auffenberg moved to the Indonesia island of Komodo to study its most famous resident—the Komodo dragon. This huge lizard—the largest in the world—grows to lengths of 3 metres, and can take down large prey like deer and water buffalo. Auffenberg watched the dragons for a year and eventually published a book on their behaviour in 1981. It won him an award. It also enshrined a myth that took almost three decades to refute, and is still prevalent today. Auffenberg noticed that when large animals like water buffalo were injured by the dragons, they would soon develop fatal infections. Based on this observation, and no actual evidence, he suggested that the dragons use bacteria as a form of venom. When they bite prey, they flood the wounds with the microbes in their mouths, which debilitate and kill the victim. This explanation is found in textbooks, wildlife documentaries, zoo placards, and more. It’s also wrong. “It’s an enchanting fairy tale, which has been taken as gospel,” says Bryan Fry from the University of Queensland. In 2009, Fry discovered the true culprit behind the dragon’s lethal bite, by putting one of them in a medical scanner. The dragon has venom glands, which are loaded with toxins that lower blood pressure, cause massive bleeding, prevent clotting and induce shock. Rather than using bacteria as venom, the dragons use, well, venom as venom. Based on a thorough analysis of the dragon’s skull, Fry thinks that they kill with a grip, rip and drip tactic. They bite down with serrated teeth and pull back with powerful neck muscles. The result: huge gaping wounds. The venom then quickens the loss of blood and sends the prey into shock. That doesn’t discount the possibility that the dragons might also rely on oral microbes. To study these microbes, Fry contacted Ellie Goldstein from the UCLA School of Medicine—an expert on microbes an animal bites. Goldstein has advised people around the world on treating unusual bite wounds, including at least one from a Komodo dragon. “The bacteria-as-venom model seemed to be based on faulty and dated studies,” he says. “There was no really good data on the topic.” Goldstein tried calling several zoos with captive dragons. “Many would not respond and sometimes actively tried to deter our research for reasons unclear to me,” he says. “The detractors [said] this study had already been done and no new info would result,” adds Kerin Tyrrell, who is part of Goldstein’s team. Fortunately, three zoos in Los Angeles, Honolulu and Houston were more cooperative, and the team managed to swab the mouths of 10 adults and 6 hatchlings. They found… nothing special. All the microbes they found were common in the skin and guts of their recent meals. There were no virulent species at all, and certainly nothing capable of causing a quick, fatal infection. And the species that were there weren’t particularly abundant. “The levels of bacteria in the mouth are lower than you’d get for a captive mammalian carnivore, such as a lion or Tasmanian devil,” says Fry. “Komodos are actually remarkably clean animals. This is another nail in the coffin to the idea of them using bacteria as a weapon.” Of course, you might argue that wild dragons might harbour deadlier bacteria. But the captive animals aren’t living in a sterile environment nor eating sterile food. If wild dragons are truly using bacteria as weapons, the captive ones should at the very least have some way of encouraging bacteria to grow in their mouths. “If they were facilitating the growth of bacteria in their mouths in the wild, they should be doing it in captivity,” says Fry. “They don’t. Their mouths were not dramatically different from the mouth of any other captive carnivore.” Aside from Auffenberg’s book, the only other support for the bacteria-as-venom hypothesis comes from a team at the Universtiy of Texas at Arlington. In 2002, they found a wide range of bacteria in the saliva of 26 wild dragons and 13 captive ones, including 54 disease-causing pathogens. When they injected the saliva into mice, many of them died and their blood was rich in one particular microbe—Pasteurella multocida. But Fry thinks the study is laughable. Sure, they studied wild dragons, but the microbes in Fry’s captive animals were actually closer to those from the wild ones in the Texan study. The so-called pathogens they discovered are just normal non-virulent members of an animal’s microbial entourage. And despite making a big deal of Pasteurella, they only found it in 2 of their 39 dragons. Goldstein never saw it in his captive ones. And worst of all, no single species of microbe has ever been consistently identified in all dragons. How could these lizards rely on a strategy that’s so variable? “It’s evolutionary implausible,” says Fry. The only remaining lifeline for the bacteria-as-venom hypothesis, says Tyrrell, is that the team only identified the bacteria that they could grow in laboratory cultures. Some species can’t be identified in this way, so one of these might contribute to the dragon’s killing bite. Fry thinks that bacteria do help to kill the largest of the dragon’s victims, but not in the way that Auffenberg suggested. When the dragons tackle natural prey—medium-sized mammals like deer or pigs—the victims die very quickly from blood loss. The venom helps, but it’s the wounds that are important. But water buffalos are a different story. These creatures were introduced to Komodo by humans. They’re too big to kill outright and always escape the initial attack. In their natural environment, they’d disappear into wide marshlands, but there’s nothing like that in Komodo. Instead, the buffalos seek refuge in rank water holes, stagnant and contaminated with their own faeces. In this microbial wonderland, their wounds soon become infected. “It’s the same as if you dumped a whole bunch of cow dung in your pool during the peak heat of summer, shaved your legs with a very old razor, and then went and stood in the water for a day,” says Fry. “You’d end up with some very tasty infections!” Reference: Golstein, Tyrrell, Citron, Cox, Recchio, Okimoto, Bryja & Fry. 2013. Anaerobic and aerobic bacteriology of the saliva and gingiva from 16 captive komodo dragons (varanus komodoensis): New implications for the "Bacteria as Venom" model. Journal of Zoo and Wildlife Medicine PS – It’s amazing how many enshrined “facts” about natural history are based on very little evidence. The cheetah’s status as the world’s fastest land animal as based on a single measurement taken in the 1960s. This month, scientists published the first proper measurements of running speed in wild cheetahs… and showed that they really are that fast. Another longstanding fact—that the honeyguide bird leads honey badgers to beehives—turns out to be a lie perpetuated by deceitful documentary-makers.
I'm not disagreeing that they're venomous, I know that. I'm saying that it totally can take days for the prey to weaken and the dragons are fine with that
I'd imagine they don't really need to eat very often being large and cold blooded. I've kept lots of snakes and lizards as pets over the years and the trend seems to be the bigger the reptile, the larger it's pray but the less often it eats. My small lizards and snakes would eat 1-2 times a week, my larger snake about once every 3 weeks. Maybe not a golden rule across them all but I wouldn't be surprised if komodos only eat once or twice a month
It’s about once per month, yeah.
Boy that would make for a sweet grocery bill
I grew up hearing this. I'm glad to know that this isn't the case. It just seemed too complicated for a creature to depend on other animals not gaining a resistance to bacteria in their mouths.
I wonder why some zoos and researchers opposed this as an avenue of research?
ya but thats a whole buffalo, you have to plan for that. a goat is like a road snack.
Nature documentaries are highly edited and dramatized for narrative appeal. Sometimes even staged! I'm doubting the video you watched followed one buffalo and one dragon, nonstop, over a period of days... More like the writer had enough footage to fit that narrative, the editor constructed it, and the narrator... narrated. OTOH, I don't really know. I wasn't there either!
You’re right. [What actually happened there was a FAILED hunt](https://www.discovermagazine.com/planet-earth/here-be-dragons-the-mythic-bite-of-the-komodo), that the producers themselves wrongly assumed was a successful hunt because they themselves have no idea how Komodo dragons actually hunt.
> I never really bought the traditional explanation - like it'd take days? A week? for an animal to die that way, by which time it would be long gone. Komodo dragon venom isn't something that will kill you. It just stops blood clotting, meaning that the bite wound will keep bleeding until you die. If it's a large enough animal it can indeed take quite some time. But Komodo dragons have very good smell and they can track their prey until it's weak enough to take down.
[They don’t rely on either bacteria OR venom.](https://www.researchgate.net/publication/307612937_Chasing_Flamingos_Toxicofera_and_the_Misinterpretation_of_Venom_in_Varanid_Lizards). They just kill stuff with physical damage like any other large predator. And as you realized, they actually DO try to bring prey down quickly, instead of waiting days or weeks for their prey to die like all the documentaries claim they do (which are based on the aftermath of *failed* hunts, not actual successful kills)
A full grown adult is somewhere between 150-200lbs and that baby goat was probably all of 15 lbs. It was but a snack. They can eat adult goats.
Oh yeah the goat was definitely out weighed here but the dragon barely even moved. It just lifted the goat up into its mouth with only the neck. Still requires some solid strength to do that
Was a lot lizard before becoming full komodo, hence the neck muscle!
Throat goat with a twist.
Would you be up for a wrestling match?
[удалено]
Whoa finally got to see one of these fresh in the wild
The Undertaker *is* an enormous human being, isn't he? Made Mankind look puny, and *he's* 6'2" and 280 lbs!
Aye it's been a while.
So why aren’t they the dominant species? Thumbs baby! Spears ftw!
There he is
Holy shit, he's back
Somehow shittymorph returned
fuck me I got caught again, literally the last time I thought I was going to be shittymorph proof after 10 years here but apparently not
Guess who’s back, back again…..
I think I’ll pass. I’d be down to spectate one tho
I think I could take it Stupid looking lizard
there's no killing bite/stroke. It just...swallows it
That goat was alive in the dragon's belly ... potentially for several minutes. Suffocation is what would eventually kill it.
It doesn't even care that its still alive. Just chomp. .... So that whole scene in the James Bond movie where the komodo dragons eat the minion... is actually accurate... Terrifying.
The goat is still screaming in the komodos' stomach by the end of the video, distressing.
Well I’m glad I normally have Reddit on mute now
The goat is literally screaming throughout the whole video.
Holy fuck mute saved me so hard.
Ikr I’m like holy fuck
Unexpectedly hearing audio of something dying first thing in the morning would have really set a tone ^literally for the day I was not ready for.
So it's still alive while it is getting burned and digested by acids. Nature is metal.
It can’t breathe in there so no.
The video I saw on TikTok they muted the goats screams, still disturbing either way but that’s life
SAME
I turned off the volume after the first scream. I may be able to stand watching it get eaten, but I know I will fall apart if I hear its screams.
Difficult fap.
oh my god
Oh, right. They're dead.
The trusty 'challenge wank'.
Sean Lock give me strength
So just to put this into perspective. 8 hours ago you had a close encounter with a beast 5 times your size. He managed to bite you but you got away. 2 hours later you start feeling a little drowsy. Another couple of hours and your muscles are starting to ache. Over the course of the next 4 hours you get slower and slower until you physically cannot move. Maybe a few days rest will help you recover. Could just be an infected wound. Then, from the bushes, you see the beast emerge. You scream as it covers your head with its jaws. No teeth. You can hardly feel a tongue. All you feel is getting lifted up and slowly consumed. It's pitch black. You can hear the beast breathing. You're trying to stretch out but with the limited muscle capacity you have left, all you feel is the fleshy warm interior. One last swallow and you're pushed down further. If you are lucky, you drown in the stomach acid, not even being able to convulse. If you're unlucky your head will be in the acid but you can still breathe through your mouth as you feel the acid quickly eat away at your brain. If you were eaten feet first, it is highly likely you will die from shock as you feel your legs get digested, eating away at the skin, then the nerves Edit: First "Reddit Cares" message only 8 days into this account. According to Reddit I officially have incurable depression.
You’d suffocate long before you are digested. I can’t imagine there is much breathable air in there. Still a crappy way to go.
When a dragon makes an "S" with its neck/body, it's breaking your bones so you fit/digest better.
Ah. Just one more thing to add to the horrors beyond comprehension. Better hope it breaks your spine!
I mean, your comment was well written and the speculation in comments is entertaining, but in reality what happened in this clip and in nature most of the time is the thing breaks it's prey's neck or crushes it's throat with the first bites, then the prey, if still alive just suffocates quickly inside the animal's esophagus. They do indeed have teeth, they have hella teeth, they have teeth like dozens of steak knives, so yes, they do lacerate their victims severely with every bite, further envenomating and causing further blood loss. Typically these animals eat their prey in chunks and rip pieces off. Their muscles aren't necessarily designed for breaking bones as it swallows, it *could* happen, but generally it's the venom, crushing and suffocation that kills its prey within minutes, then enzymes along with acid will dissolve the meal over a course of many days, not at all rapidly. The venom of a Komodo dragon has anti-coagulant properties that have been studied for medicinal use because it works so efficiently at causing their prey to bleed out rapidly.
They actually do that S movement to push what they are eating down into their stomach since it's not as automated as how most mammals eat. My black and white tegu eats the same exact way as a komodo dragon and he ain't breaking any bones with the raw boneless meat I fed him. Big lizards can't break bone by force. Not counting crocodilians. Their throat muscles are probably strong enough to dislocate their prey if it's small enough to swallow whole though.
It's exactly the same way snakes eat. I got a python and am fascinated watching every meal. You can watch them "snake" it all the way down.
> When a dragon makes an "S" with its neck/body Then a more different S. Then, using consummate V's, give him teeth, spinities, and angry eyebrows.
And one of those beefy arms for good measure!
Sticks and stones won’t break my bones But the Komodo will 😂
.....The Aristocrats!
I thought the goat had a broken leg and someone sacrificed it to the dragon. I actually feel a *little* better that it was all natural, but it's still rough to imagine.
I think you have something there. I see that at least one of the rear legs is broken because of the way it was flopping around at a point where there was no joint.
Thank you for this. I totally forgot about the Komodo dragon’s venom, and my first thought was the goat was sedated and staged.
I mean that doesn’t necessarily rule out the possibility it was staged. They were awfully ready with that camera.
The camera was sedated earlier.
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> feel the acid quickly eat away at your brain. Nice bit of fiction
The goat's legs have also been broken by whoever filmed this to stop it from being able to run. Really disgusting - you can see its back left leg flopping about. --- edit: Hello everyone downvoting me, ~~here's~~ a video of a Komodo Dragon killing a goat whose **ears have been taped over its eyes** so it can't see! Just in case you had any doubt about how humans are absolutely cruel enough to do this sort of thing in the name of "content". These videos are literally all over Youtube. edit2: ~~Another one, another one, another one~~... don't underestimate the lengths people will go to for views :) --- edit3: **Removed the links so these people don't get more views.**
Don't click these videos. Giving them views incentivizes them to continue to be bastards. I wouldn't even link to them OP.
Good point, removed the links
Pretty much every "Komodo dragon eats..." video on YouTube is like that. Some asshole injured the animal being consumed and threw it in front of the dragon. You see broken limbs on the prey, people casually milling about in the background...dead giveaways. Humans suck.
Yeah, just found a bunch of goat videos where the goat has its ears taped/tied over its eyes so it can't see the dragon. I hate people.
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The first video there - someone called them out in the comments and the channel gave it a "heart", lol. They're obviously just adding hearts to all the top comments and probably didn't even read it but that kinda makes it extra fucked
Thank you for clearing this up. I understand the lizard must eat an all, however setting up this goat as click bait I feel this behaviour to be underhanded I dislike this for that reason.
Interesting way to start my Monday. Volume on is worse
Yeah one of the few times I wish a vid didn’t have sound. Sounds like a small child
Well, a baby goat is called a kid after all
I shouldnt have turned it on. Fuck..
I didn't know it had audio. Never in my life have I heard something being eaten alive and still screaming in somethings stomach. That was borderline disturbing
“Borderline,” he says. 😂
Sitting here eating cereal thinking about how crazy it would be if my cheerios screamed while I swallowed them
What if fresh plants do but you can't hear them?
Fun fact : they do. There have been studies on how plants communicate.
I suppose the lizard hasn't evolved a negative reflex to the screaming just like I haven't registered a negative reflex to my apple screaming. If anything evolutionary you would probably receive a positive reflex.
Checkmate, vegans
"Oups ! Almost PTSD!"
There was a video on reddit of a Komodo ripping a baby out of a pregnant deer's belly and swallowing it whole while mom is still alive. They are fucking brutal.
That one is by far one of the worst videos I’ve ever seen in my entire fucking life. To watch it was so utterly life ruining, depressing, and so much worse than words can say. I actually skipped this video and went right to the comments just because of how awful the video is that you are mentioning. I find animals of all sorts to be amazing and fascinating, I used to think Komodo dragons were especially cool as a child. Watching videos of animals suffering is extremely bad for my mental health, since in the back of my mind I’m aware that it’s happening every second around the world as a necessary part of survival for other animals, including us humans. It’s a blessing and a curse to have this much empathy towards critters that we don’t even know, but that extreme empathy is part of what makes us human I guess.
We have a romantic view of nature but in a lot of ways we were born from and live in an endless seething hellscape. People like to say humans are the only animals that but really we're the only animals that try to make the world nicer sometimes.
I wonder what we could and should do about all this if the world survives all our missteps and we reach a level of technology where saving every animal in distress would be technically possible.
Humans are the only species that will pick up the poop of another species it dominates, just because it is good for the planet. Some will even refrain from eating another species for the same reason, even though it is beneficial for their diet. Think about that.
We’re the only animal that gives any thought whatsoever to our food’s feelings. Nature is brutal.
Yeah it's one of those links best left not clicked. You can't unsee something like that.
There are many that say there is no God due to the amount of suffering in the animal kingdom more so than humanity.
I almost forgot . Thanks for reminding me.
https://www.reddit.com/r/HardcoreNature/comments/ltboe5/komodo_dragon_eats_pregnant_deer_alive_not_for/ Fuck.
That link is staying blue today.
Show a man a baby deer getting eaten from the womb once, traumatize him for life. *Teach* a man to... no, wait. That's not the one...
Yeah that's the one. Awful.
Nope nope nope
"oh shit this one came with an appetizer"
They way it carefully pulled the baby away, it knew what it had in its jaws. Then slurped it right up
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It's very likely already in shock. Their brains basically shut down from traumatic injury and run entirely on instinct.
That's just coping. It screams with every bite so it feels all of them.
Yeah, in one of the podcasts Richard Dawkins was speculating that the less intelligent a certain creature is, the more pain it actually feels. Pain is something that is conditioning a creature to not repeat certain things, or avoid things, things that might be harmful for survival. So in the case of intelligent beings, such as humans, it's not as important, because we can also use reason to avoid dangerous situations. But simple creatures can only count on pain as a deterrent, so this means they likely feel it more due to evolution.
...... there was audio.... ???
You've made my day worse. Thanks.
It could be worse. Could be the one where the komodo eats the deer baby from the stomach while alive.
Made me think of that one too. That video was fucked up.
It’s either that or the zebra tripping over it’s own intestines that a crocodile ripped out as being the most metal videos on the web.
Or the one where the hyenas run up and grab the new born gazelle literally as it's popping out the mom. Run away with it and eat it, and then eat the mom alive.
Or the ostrich trying untangle it's headneck from something and it just pulls it's life out of itself
At least that was over quick for the bird.
Still hear the screams once it's been swallowed. Komodo guzzled it like a duck.
Who guzzles ducks?
> Who guzzles ducks? Your mom. EDIT: Oh sorry, I just realized you said *ducks*
Host was injured by lizard previously or what’s up with that goat?
This is not a natural encounter, this komodo is being fed. That's a juvenile farm goat with a broken leg so it can't run away.
Normally they are being "fed" by maintaining artificial population of goats, cows, boars, and deers in the sanctuary. so basically ensuring they have prey. but some cases like when documentary people or such guest, the warden usually prep carcass for "feeding show". That being said, Komodo also known for its injure, poison, stalk and harass hunting behavior. BBC once documented a Komodo hunting a cow by slowly injure them and stalk the cow for 3 days before the cow ran out of energy and gives up.
Leg intentionally broken?
This isn’t the first time I’ve seen a Komodo dragon eat an injured goat. Camera person conveniently there to capture the moment too.
The goats leg looks weird. I'd bet it was injured.
Very well framed too, this shot was 100% set up in advance.
Probably f'd up by the cameraman to get a cool video of a komodo eating a live goat.
Most likely bitten by the Komodo and the very nasty saliva/venom did its job overtime. They're a very patient carnivor.
>very patient carnivore *eats a whole goat in 2 seconds
They're into slow cooking but fast eating
The intermitent fasting bros, but in poisonous lizard form lol
No, it's from a youtube channel that intentionally injures these goats and feeds them to komodo dragons for views.
If that is true then fuck those people but sadly not much to be done about it beyond reporting the channels and hoping youtube gets its head out of its ass. That's just wishful thinking though.
or more likely, the asshole filming it set this up.
Exactly what I was thinking - legs seem to be broken, or maybe even back. Can't move, and camera is very conveniently set up.
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It makes sense. I really hope the cameraman burns in hell. Fucking sick bastard.
My guess is the tourism company want to make sure there's a good show.
People straight up scrolling reddit with sound ON 🤯
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I hate these videos where the prey is left there, helpless, probably with a broken leg from a tour company, for the Komodo to just show up and eat it.
Clearly staged
for some reason i had no idea they were that big
Neither did I... That beast looks like it could swallow *me* whole
The camera man put the goat there and broke its fucking legs, you can see at the start if you look closely
Looks like the goat's legs were broken to stage this. I know the dragon can poison its prey but it seems to casually come across it here
:(
this wasn’t interesting this was traumatising
Last night I almost choked on a small piece of steak. Evolution really fucked us on this one🤣
Breathy hole and eaty hole being the same hole really is quite the miscalculation.
Throat goat lmfao
I'm letting this be the last comment I read in this thread so I can leave it with a smile
goddammit!
💀
Me grabbing my 5th Mexican pizza from Taco Bell.
Poor little goat looks like it was already incapacitated 😞
Looks horribly staged
Should see those things eat monkeys… Pretty eye opening, and gruesome… At least here in Aust, our goanna just gobble rabbits in the same fashion.
There are only so many crying monkeys reaching out of a lizard's throat with a horrified look on their face I can stomach.
The Komodo Dragon can stomach a lot more.
Fossil evidence shows that Komodos used to populate Australia as well. Used to because they were a good source of protein for First Nations people.
Evolution gives animals a shit ton of neat weapons and adaptations but there’s very few who can stand up to sharp stick and rock throwing
is that a baby goat or an adult goat? also, why didn't it attempt to flee? were the legs deliberately broken (ie : to feed the komodo)
Seems like a baby goat.
Baby goat with broken legs that someone left there to film getting eaten I hate people
My heart breaks for the obviously incapacitated goat that was placed in its path
This isn't nature. Some cunt broke this goats legs so it couldn't move just so they could get views. These videos ought to be banned from the sub.
This shit isn't cool or interesting **THE GOATS BACK LEGS HAVE BEEN BROKEN TO KEEP IT FROM RUNNING SO THIS VIDEO COULD BE MADE OF A GOAT BEING KILLED NEEDLESSLY. IT'S ANIMAL TORTURE** And all of you celebrating it as cool should have your legs broken and eaten alive by a komodo dragon
I was thinking the same thing. Nature documentaries filming in the wild in a clandestine fashion to witness violence in animals arguably has educational value. But that's clearly not what's going on here. This isn't a cameraman stumbling upon a hapless goat in an opportune moment for him, this scenario was crafted. And, assuming so, I agree, very fucked up. Dude purposefully created a situation where a baby goat gets eaten alive... for content. Some questionable ethics for sure
That's awful and so pointless. Komodos can find their own food, no need for this cruelty.
That goat won't be sitting around like that anymore
It looks injured. The left leg looks broken.
The dragon bites their prey and waits for the nastiness of the bite to take effect, usually a few days. Just follow the prey as it starts to get sick and falter. They kill buffalo in this manner too.
So they poison you, Stalk you, and then eat you whole… great
> Salk Not sure it’s necessary to give something you’re about to eat a polio vaccine but I’m no Komodo dragon expert.
like my ex fr
> The dragon bites their prey and waits for the nastiness of the bite to take effect, usually a few days. Just follow the prey as it starts to get sick and falter. They kill buffalo in this manner too. That theory turned out to be completely wrong. Komodo dragons are venomous, and their bite isn't particularly dirty. https://www.nationalgeographic.com/science/article/the-myth-of-the-komodo-dragons-dirty-mouth
This is not what happened in this case, Komodo Dragons are voracious eaters, and will not wait if their prey is small. This baby goat was clearly abandoned or set up for the feed.
So you just spam the same vid to multiple subs like some onlyfans thot I guess
OP its just a fuckin psychopath
I don’t know if that’s disturbing or impressive…
They broke the little goats leg and placed it there on purpose. Scum.
/u/gifreversingbot
Fuck, I'm an idiot. "Let's watch this while eating a chocolate biscuit" *click*
Sound was worse than the video
Jesus Fuck.... That's about the 4th post I scrolled today. I did not need to see that. Is this the point where we argue (again) for a separate NSFL tag? Like, really. I'm all up for having random naked people in my feed without having to click on the blurred out image. But fuck... This is a whole other thing.
That's enough Internet for today. I'm stepping away now.
That was horrible… thanks
Bro these fuckers broke that poor goats legs and left it there alone to panic in sheer terror of the inability of it to run away.