Species profile
Varanus komodoensis
Komodo dragon
EN · Endangered — Endangered — very high risk of extinction in the wild
About this species
Komodo dragon (Varanus komodoensis) is part of the curated SpeciesWatch catalogue and is classified as Endangered. Komodo dragons hunt with venom glands and serrated, shark-like teeth, bleeding out prey as large as water buffalo. Its recorded population direction is decreasing, so the category needs to be read alongside continuing losses of individuals or local populations.
Habitat, behaviour and ecological role
This profile associates the species with terrestrial, island. These labels summarise environments used during different stages of its life rather than drawing an exact range boundary. They can eat a fifth of their body weight in one meal and then survive on just a dozen such meals a year. Its anatomy and behaviour are responses to those environments, while movement can connect distant places requiring different forms of management.
Why this species is at risk
Hatchlings climb trees and live on insects for years — their only protection from adults, which will happily eat young dragons. The catalogue records 3 principal pressures for this profile: Climate change, Habitat loss, Tourism pressure. They should not be treated as isolated causes. Habitat change, exploitation, pollution, disease and climate stress can reinforce one another, while the importance of each pressure varies between regions and through time.
Conservation outlook
Protecting and reconnecting habitat is a priority, together with infrastructure planning that keeps feeding, breeding or migration routes functional. Climate monitoring and protection of ecological refuges are needed because reducing other pressures improves the capacity to adapt. Actions need long-term monitoring and revision as evidence changes; a positive intervention in one place does not by itself represent recovery across the species.
Editorial review: 2026-08-21
Threat factors
Known occurrences
Dots are georeferenced occurrence records from OBIS (marine) and GBIF (global), not individual animals and not a complete range map. Up to 500 recent API results are cached; the profile renders at most 500 points.
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