Komodo Dragon

Was watching some documentary (I think) the other day. It was about komodo dragons. Personally, I hate all lizards and everything related to it. Even mentioning the word lizard is enough to give me the creeps. But for science, I'm willing to make scarification & I'll write about it here. =D

Many people do know that komodo dragon is one large lizard. *Yuck* It has a hard skin, which acts more like an armor. In the clip that was shown on TV, this particular komodo dragon was attacking a deer. Notice the size difference. But don't be to quick to judge this lizard. It can grow to upto 10 feet. That's similar to 2 short human beings.

Despite it's huge size, it can run quite fast over a short distance to protect itself, from, say humans. So, this bunch of researchers went to some island in Indonesia, where these lizards are found in abundance. They have found out that the saliva of these lizards are dangerous and it contains many bacteria. So, when an animal, no matter how big it is, is bitten by this lizard, the bacteria in the saliva will be transferred into the blood, thus, causing death, sooner or later. This is similar to a snake's venom. The saliva was seen dangling from the side of the lizard's mouth. Eew!

So, these researchers are trying to find if there's a cure if one gets bitten by a komodo dragon, since that the lizards are not vulnerable to their own saliva. Getting the saliva proved quite difficult for the researchers as they couldn't even touch the lizard's body bare handed. It had millions of spikes all over its body which contains the same stuff as the saliva.

At the end, I dunno if they did get the cure or not, as I had to paint the door. Haha.. And I'm too lazy to look it up t