Komodo Dragons: Walking with Dragons

Regular Another Chance To See reader November Tan contacted me to tell me about a two-part Komodo Dragon Field Journal written by Charith Pelpola. Charith is a TV/Documentary writer-director whose work has appeared on Discovery's Animal Planet. These are a great couple of posts from Charith on their "Lost In The Jungle" blog, and loads of great Komodo Dragon pictures too! Good stuff.

From Part 1 - Walking With Dragons

Now I began to realize how film crews before ours had managed to capture such awesome closeups of the dragons. It could well have been just a case of, "Ok, let's just park the boat over here, set up camera on the beach over there, throw some chunks of meat around the place, have a cup of tea and a few sandwiches while the dragons plod over, shoot a few rolls, pack up and head back home."

Kind of demystifies the whole illusion of dangerous wildlife film-making doesn't it?

From Part 2 - Walking With Dragons

Its not long before the sounds of frantic scurrying and scrabbling among the rocks and boulders reveal the presence of juvenile dragons, rushing for cover. Dragons have famously earned themselves a reputation as a cannibalistic species - and rightly so, although most victims end up being the youngsters who accidently get in the way of an adult during its feeding frenzy.

Juvenile dragons have come up with a novel 'cannibal anti-deterrent'. They smear themselves in the faecal matter of fallen prey. Even catholic eaters like Komodo Dragons, with their wide-ranging menu, still draw the line when it comes to faecal matter...