lizard

A&W' s 75 facts Komodo dragons 1) This large Komodo dragons, semi-aquatic lizard can reach a length of 7 ft. 2) Males are normally larger than the females. 3) The average weight is 2-6 lbs. 4) Found in Malaysia, Indonesia, Sri Lanka, and northeast India. 5) Water monitors can be found close to the center of some of Southeast Asia’s largest cities, but larger numbers are found in hot, humid swamps and mangrove forests. 6) The body is usually dark brown or black, with yellow spots on the under parts that tend to diminish as the animal ages. 7) The head and neck are long and slender; becoming more stout as the animal matures. 8) The body is long with muscular limbs that have sharp nails on the end of each toe to aid in digging, climbing, and scratching. 9) The tail is long, slender, very muscular, and half of the total body length. 10) The water monitor will eat anything it is able to swallow. 11) Common prey includes birds and their eggs, small mammals (especially rats), fish, lizards, frogs, snakes, juvenile crocodiles, tortoises, and even other water monitors. 12) The water monitor typically breeds during the rainy season and lays 6-30 eggs a few months after breeding. When ready to lay eggs, the monitor usually finds a spot along rotting logs and stumps to dig a hole about 1 ft deep with its forelegs. 13) The Jacobson’s organ, a special organ also found in snakes, gives the water monitor a keen sense of smell and, like a snake, the monitor will move its tongue in and out as it smells its surroundings. 14) The black water monitor spends much of its time basking in the sun. 15) When alarmed, it can run very quickly with the tail held in a characteristic curve, the tip just off the ground. 16) This lizard can be quite nasty when harassed. 17) Unlike other lizards the monitor’s tail does not break off and regenerate. 18) he eyes are prominent and the nostrils are close to the end of the nose. 19) Like a snake, the monitor’s tongue is forked. 20) The body is covered with scales that are round and protruding. 21) Ora, Komodo dragon, buaja darat (land crocodile) 22) Order: Squamata 23) Family**:** Varanidae 24) Genus: Varanus 25) Species: Varanus salvator 26) Common names: Black water monitor. 27) Komodo dragons have become endangered because people destroyed the lizards' habitat or overhunted their prey. 28) Komodo dragons have scaly bodies with long necks, strong claws, and sharp, sawlike teeth. 29) They frequently eat meat that they scavenge. 30) Their forked tongues have an organ of smell that helps them detect rotting animals several miles or kilometers away. 31) Dragons are also effective predators. 32) They have enough speed and strength to overpower deer, wild pigs, and even water buffaloes. 33) Their saliva contains bacteria that can kill wounded prey in a few days. 34) Dragons have killed a small number of people. 35) The female Komodo dragon usually lays 15 to 30 eggs in a nest. 36) Her eggs hatch in eight to nine months, and the young may take five years to mature. 37) Dragons can live for 50 years. 38) People also trapped dragons to sell them as pets or killed them for their body parts. 39) Indonesia now protects dragons from poachers, and biologists are attempting to save their habitat. 40) Also, many zoos have established successful dragon breeding programs. 41) The **Komodo Dragon**, also known as the **Komodo Monitor**, **Komodo Island Monitor**, **Ora** (to the natives of [|Komodo][|[2]]) 42) Komodo Dragons' sense of hearing is not particularly acute, despite their visible earholes, and their visual discrimination (most especially of stationary objects) is poor, although they can see in color. 43) They use their tongue to detect taste and smell [|stimuli], as with many other reptiles, with the [|vomeronasal] sense using a [|Jacobson's organ].[|[12] 44) This sense aids navigation in the dark. 45) With the help of a favorable wind, they may be able to detect carrion up to 8.5 kilometres (5 miles) away. 46) Komodo dragons' nostrils are not of great use for smelling, as they do not have a [|diaphragm].[|[1]] 47) They have no taste buds on their tongues (only a few in the back of their throat)[|[12]], but use an organ on the roof of the mouth instead to taste objects.[|[10]][|] 48) To catch prey that is out of reach, they may stand on their hind legs and use their tail as a support. 49) [|]] As they grow older, their claws are used primarily as weapons, as their great mass makes climbing impractical for adults. 50) For shelter, dragons dig holes, that can measure from 1-3 metres (3-10 feet) wide, with their powerful forelimbs and claws 51) Because of their large size and habit of sleeping in these holes, Komodo Dragons are able to conserve body heat throughout the night and minimize their basking period the morning after. 52) Komodo Dragons are [|carnivorous]. Although they eat mostly [|carrion],[|[3]] studies show that they also hunt live [|prey] with a stealthy approach followed by a sudden short charge. 52) When suitable prey arrives near its ambush site, it will suddenly charge at the animal and go for the underside or the throat.[|[10]] 53) Komodo Dragons have not traditionally been considered [|venomous], but it has recently been suggested that they may produce a weak venom. 54) In addition to the possible venom, dragons also possess virulent [|bacteria] in their [|saliva], of which more than 15 strains have been isolated. 55) These bacteria cause [|septicemia] in their victim; if an initial bite does not kill the prey animal and it escapes, it will commonly succumb within a week to the resulting [|infection]. 56) The lizard is able to locate its prey using its keen sense of [|smell], which can locate a dead or dying animal from a range of up to 9.5 kilometers (6 [|miles]) 57) The Komodo dragon appears to be immune to its resident bacteria. 58) Komodo Dragons eat by tearing large chunks of flesh and swallowing them whole while holding the carcass down with their forelegs. 59) The copious amounts of red saliva that the Komodo dragons produce helps to lubricate the food, but swallowing is still a long process (15-20 minutes to swallow a goat). 60) To prevent itself from suffocating while swallowing, it breathes using a small tube under the tongue that connects to the lungs. 61) The Komodo Dragon's loosely articulated jaws, flexible skull, and expandable [|stomach] allows it to eat up to 80 [|percent] of its body weight in one meal. 62) After eating, it drags itself to a sunny spot to speed digestion, as the food could rot and poison the dragon if left undigested for too long. Because of their slow metabolisms, large dragons may only eat 12 meals a year. 63) After digestion, the Komodo Dragon passes a mass of horns, hair, and teeth known as the gastric pellet, which is covered in malodorous mucus. 64) After passing the gastric pellet, it rubs its face in the dirt or on bushes to get rid of the mucus, suggesting that it, like humans, does not relish the scent of the mucus. 65) In eating, the largest animals generally eat first, while the smaller ones follow a social hierarchy. 66) By use of body language and rumbling hisses, the largest male asserts his dominance, and the smaller males assert their humbleness. 67) Against two dragons of equal size, fighting may occur in the form of wrestling. 68) The loser who is cast down will usually retreat, but if they cannot make a quick escape, the victor may kill and eat them. 69) The Dragon's diet is wide-ranging, and includes [|invertebrates], other reptiles (including smaller dragons), [|birds], bird eggs, small [|mammals], [|monkeys], [|wild boars], [|goats], [|deer], [|horses], and [|water buffalos]. 70) Young Komodos will eat insects, eggs, [|geckoes], and small mammals.[|[3]] 71) Occasionally they have been known to consume [|humans] and human corpses, digging up bodies from shallow graves to do so. 72) It is thought that the Komodo Dragon evolved to feed on the [|dwarfs] [|stegodons] (a relative of the elephant) that once lived on Flores. 73) Unusually, the Komodo Dragon has been observed intentionally startling a pregnant deer in the hopes of a miscarriage whose remains they can eat, a technique that has also been observed in large African predators 74) Because the Komodo Dragon does not have a [|diaphragm], it cannot suck water when drinking, nor can it lap water with its tongue. Instead, it drinks by taking a mouthful of water, lifting its head, and letting the water run down its throat. 75) [|Mating] occurs between [|May] and [|August], with the [|eggs] laid in [|September].

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Arch984's story

Fiction- There was a laboratory of exotic animals which are now called animals for the cover up.Now in 1549 there was a man who could do the unknown or for us the impossible. People thought of him as a normal man, who was top in the class, but only one knew who he really was. The professor wasn't from around the earth but another planet. He was the first of his kind and was the father of his kind for the lizards.On a cold wet ,dripping day the professor McMartin was working on the creation of his planets life. He miked all sorts of colors in a tub with snake scales. Unfortunately the tub was over heating and the glass shadered on the professor and make him involve into his kind. He screamed with the burning on his body. When the security guards came the room was destroyed from the burning gases every where.Then in the middle of the floor was what is now a lizard. The guards were so afraid of the creature they ran out,and called the president.When the president heard he sent his best agents there. One of the squad members knew the professor,and knew McMartin had a secret because he would say lizard silently to himself. So he told His squad that it was just an animal and they would call it a lizard. Ever since then the lizards have been sited every were.

song- There are lizards everywhere, there are lizards everywhere. The are small, and they are big! O there are lizards everywhere, there are lizards everywhere. Yellow,blue,and black. Orange,green,and gray. Ya there are lizards everywhere,there are lizards everywhere. Alligator, crocodile, glass, basilisk, frilled, horned, komodo, green, lizards. There are lizards everywhere, there are lizards everywhere. In Australia, Africa, China, America, Asia, and Europe. O there are lizards every where! Ya.... Thank you, thank you, thank you very much.

L:Lizards are reptiles.

I:In the warm jungle of South America is the Basilisk lizard.

Z:Zipping through the grass goes the glass lizard.

A:A lizard is a animal in between a snake, and salamander.

R:Reptiles like a lizard have scales.

D:Down south on a island lives the Komodo Dragon.

Diary- Dear Diary, I've always had a grudge with sally the komodo.She is so big and cool.If I was here I would rule the school.Sally is perfect to even the teachers.I don't know what it is about her,her smile,her walk,her jokes,her height,or everything.Not even a make over could make me as perfect as her.Its like she is the light in the dark to guide use,but some people are to nervous that they cant even be by here. They think the cool kids will laugh at them. Sally is the best at volleyball unlike other people so she gets all the other cool girls on her side.Without sally are volleyball gold metal will go down the drain.Some day I'll be on the same cool level as her and we will both be friends.

Menu- How long has it been since we've went to a restaurant, a long time so lets go. On the way in the car everyone talked about the best meals on the menu.When they got there the kids ran in, and waited to be seated. Smoking or non smoking?Non please,right this way.Heres your menus I'll be with you in a minute. .................................................... Lizard Classic Menu- breakfast- bird scrambled eggs.$2.99 fish eggs...........$2.00

lunch + super- flower salad........$3.99 insect burger.......$4.00 goat b.q. ribs.......$4.95 snake noddles.....$3.00 fish fry................$2.00 Snake fries..........$1.99

Deserts- Banana split.........$2.95 Beetle candy........$0.25

Drinks- flower root............$1.00 beetle juice..........$1.00 orange splash......$1.00 .................................................... Here to take your order,Sam......"I will like the insect burger,and beetle juice." Brandy........"I will take the bird scrambled eggs,and orange slash," "and I will take the goat b.q. ribs,and flower root,thank-you." O.k. your meal will be here soon. ..... Yum, that was good.Your bill will be $14.94 thank-you for coming, bye.

Poetry-
 * We are in a blizzard,because of a wizard,who is a lizard.


 * I have a smile,my friend is Lille, I live by the Neille, and I have a lizard,crocodile.


 * Roses are red violets are blue, I see you,with a tung blue.


 * Leaves are green,She has a ring, I have a sling, I see a thing,a lizard.