The Dragons of Komodo are truly one of nature’s one-off animals. Endemic to the island of Komodo, Indonesia, these massive critters dominate the landscape. They effortlessly feed on adult deer and buffalo, and their toxic saliva increases their deadly effectiveness as a top predator. This would be my first opportunity to meet a Komodo Dragon outside of Discovery Channel re-runs.

I got off the outboard at Loh Liang determined to see one of these critters. “There’s one!” a colleague whispered, and sure enough one of the massive reptiles was lazing about less than 15 feet away. In the heat of the day, the dragons just lie around; they prefer to ambush their food in the cooler hours of the day. They pretty much mack along game trails and places where they can ambush deer or water buffalo. The young climb trees and chow eggs and monkeys.

The Nature Conservancy, in a unique partnership with the Indonesian government, is working to maintain habitat and sanctuary for these amazing reptiles as well as for the unique marine resources surrounding the island of Komodo. Up until ten years ago, the forests were aggressively poached for meat from the Komodo deer, and the marine resources were subject to extreme blast fishing (bombs) and other destructive fishing techniques.

While many of the major threats have been eliminated through conservation action, the work is not done. Staff members are working to find ways to develop a komodo- and human- friendly ecotourism economy and to continue to monitor the heath of the marine resources as they recover and flourish since the marine park was established.