For those interested, these monitors are Asian Water monitors (varanus salvator) and not Komodo Dragons (varanus komodoensis). Komodos are a protected species and aren’t hunted or exploited in any other way except for tourism. Asian Water Monitors on the other hand are not only hunted for their skins (most “lizard skin” boots, shoes, belts and purses are Asian Water Monitor) but are also captured (mostly the young ones) and sold into the pet trade. Though some have been successfuly captive bred here in the states, most held are wild caught. As large monitors go, they are typically tractable in captivity. In fact, they are so easy to work with that a good friend of mine has had several that he would routinely take to elementary schools as part of a herpetology exhibit, and with the blessing of school administrators, even allow the kids to touch them. We’re talking about wild caught but long term captive five to six foot predatory lizards that kids could pet under close supervision. All that being said, they ARE five to six foot predatory lizards with reptillian brains and reptillian instincts and certainly NOT cute, cuddly, trustworthy puppies. A bite from a big one can cause severe lacerations and quite possibly infection. Many monitors lizards also tail whip when threatened and it’s no joke. As far being a threat to humans in the wild, they probably don’t represent much of one, at least not as an animal that would prey on us. These guys aren’t like crocodilians and a six footer probably will only weigh about 40lbs with much smaller, much less powerful jaws and teeth than a comparably sized American Alligator. I’m sure they’d take a chicken or small animal, but any human larger than an infant would be unlikely prey. They do look formidable in the video though.
Please understand that though I obviously like these animals and find them fascinating, I’m NOT offering any sort of negative judgment on those that would hunt them. I’ve done that before on this forum and quite justifiably suffered negative accuracy points as a result. That experience actually altered my thinking enough over time to realize I was wrong, so I have zero problem with this video. I only posted here to share some info in case anybody happened to be interested in and wanted to understand more about what was being hunted.
