A courageous journey into the Komodo dragon's den

By Steve Rhodes

KOMODO ISLAND, East Nusa Tenggara (JP): I was sitting in the dining room of Chez Felix, a pleasant little hotel in the pleasant little town of Labuhanbajo, on the island of Flores, East Nusa Tenggara, waiting for Capt. Abdul Achamad to pick me up and transport me to Komodo and Rincha islands. These are the only two islands in the world which are the home of Varanus komodoensis, otherwise known as the Komodo dragon.

Capt. Achamad was the proud owner of the trim, 17-meter fishing boat Rahmad Jaya and he'd agreed to do the trip for the princely sum of Rp 350,000 (about $70.00). While I waited I admired the stunning view of the harbor and read David Attenborough's book Zoo Quest for a Dragon, an account of his adventures in 1956 filming and catching dragons for the London Zoo.

When Attenborough was on Komodo, he and his cameraman spent several days luring dragons into camera range by hanging a dead goat from a tree and squatting in a hide inhaling the foul fumes from the decomposing animal until they managed to get the shots they wanted.

Up until 1995 this was also the method employed by the park rangers to entice the creatures within range of the tourists' camcorders. The dragons would stand up on their back legs and tear the goat to shreds. While this was a thrilling spectacle and provided reams of videotape to enthrall friends and relatives back home, it made the dragons fat and sluggish and dependent on humans for handouts. So the government decreed that the practice should cease. Now for the last four years they have gone back to fending for themselves and dragon spotting is all the more exciting and better for it.

Despite the ban on feeding, Achamad suggested that we should "take a present for the dragons". He'd purchased a chicken at the market which was already ensconced below decks.

After a pleasant three-hour cruise and a leisurely lunch, (Achamad turned out to be quite a fine cook as well as a capable captain), we cruised to a halt at the end of the jetty on Rinca island. The atmosphere was deceptively peaceful.

"Dragon," said Achamad in hushed tones, pointing theatrically toward a sign bearing the words "Welcome to Komodo National Park".

Sure enough a monstrous reptile was glaring at us from beneath the sign. Suddenly he sprang onto the jetty and swaggered arrogantly toward the boat at quite a brisk and business like pace. At close to three meters in length and weighing in at around 80 kilograms, it was a rather daunting sight and, despite all the reading up I'd done on the dragons, my first encounter turned out to be nothing like I'd expected.

Clearly it was time for us to pay our admission fee to the park in the form of the "present" clucking in its cage below decks. The unfortunate fowl had its legs hastily bound and was slung over a long bamboo pole which was thrust from the bow of the boat. The dragon lunged, the chicken squawked and slipped off the pole, making a futile attempt to escape by throwing itself into the sea. But to no avail. Dragons can swim like crocodiles. Within seconds he'd retrieved the sodden bundle of feathers and it was all over bar the shouts of merriment from the crew.

A quick gulp and he sauntered back up the jetty and collapsed in the shade of a tree, leaving the way clear for us to enter. We were told later by one of the rangers that the same lizard, who'd been named Horatio, had put the fear of god into a boat load of fishermen only a few weeks earlier.

Apparently they were new to the area and tied their boat up to the jetty while they laid out their catch on the deck to dry in the sun. Horatio had timed his attack perfectly, waiting until the last fish was laid out before charging the boat and making a flying leap onto the deck. The terrified fishermen fled to the small cabin where they had no option but to barricade themselves in and watch helplessly as Horatio polished off their haul and retired to the shade of his favorite tree to sleep off the effects off his orgy of self-indulgence.

As a result of his antics he's become something of a local legend, regarded with a certain amount of affection by some, hated by others, but certainly held in great respect by one and all.

Another resident of the island who commands respect is 24-year-old Merry Mba'u, the first woman to make it as a park ranger in Indonesia.

She's been on the job now for three months after successfully completing a six-month course in wildlife management at a university in Jakarta. Merry loves her work, especially the hours, 10 days work followed by 10 days off at her home in Labuanbajo.

Her male counterparts have to work 20 days in order to get 10 days off.

However all the rangers are totally committed to their work and have a deep concern for the welfare of the dragons and the area as a whole, including the marine national park which surrounds the islands.

Getting Merry to pose for a photo with one of her charges, a giant of a dragon called Goliath, was a load of laughs. Goliath was enjoying a quiet nap in the shade and was most reluctant to come out into the sunlight for the frivolous purpose of taking photos. He was clearly getting a trifle testy as the other rangers tried to entice him out with gentle prods with their forked sticks, their only method of dragon control. Finally his patience snapped and he charged out of the shadows, his long yellow tongue flickering ominously. Everyone backed off very smartly, including myself, nearly tripping over another dragon who'd come up to see what all the fuss was about.

But Merry stood her ground and we got a couple of quite good shots. "Be careful," one of the rangers warned me with a chuckle, "he likes to bite the tourist."

Caution

All joking aside, though, one does need to be careful. After all, any animal that can bring down a water buffalo and who regularly dines on wild pigs needs to be treated with a certain amount of caution.

So far about eight people have unwittingly become meals for the dragons. The first foreign visitor to have the dubious honor of being eaten was an elderly Swiss photographer and bird watcher, Baron Rudolf Von Reding Biberegg, who wandered off in pursuit of a rare bird and became separated from his group. By the time his friends realized he was missing, it was too late. All that was left to ship back to Switzerland were his reading glasses and camera. Every so often a child disappears from the Muslim fishing village on the eastern side of the island but this is treated philosophically as just another of life's hazards on Komodo island.

But basically, visiting the dragons is just a matter of using common sense. As long as you don't antagonize them, they leave you alone and no one is allowed to wander about the island unescorted. Your chances of being killed by a car on the streets of Jakarta are far higher than being taken by a dragon on Komodo island. Besides, there are two other creatures far more dangerous than the dragons. The first is the dreaded golden orb spider, as big as your hand, whose bite can kill you in an hour if you blunder into their web unless, as our guide put it, "you have a strong heart."

Then there are the souvenir sellers at the park entrance who set upon you with a ferocity unmatched by any attacking dragon, brandishing wooden replicas of the giant lizards in a huge variety of shapes, sizes and poses.

This is your big chance to take home a Komodo dragon. After days of trying, David Attenborough finally managed to catch one in a cage trap he and his team constructed out of trees and vines but, at the last minute, the Indonesian authorities forbade its export.

Attenborough was philosophical about the whole thing, saying: "In one way I was not sorry to leave the dragon behind. He would, I am sure, have been happy and healthy in the large heated enclosures of London Zoo's Reptile House, but he could never have appeared to anyone else as he did to us that day on Komodo, majestic and magnificent in his own forest."

It's certainly the only way to see them and well worth the rigors and perils of a trip to Komodo Island National Park.