Komodo any1 got?

[strictly_scales]

Ah, but a captive Komodo isn't going to be nearly as hungry, and given the intelligence of monitors, I would imagine they would quickly learn that keeper supplys food, rather than keeper equals food.

[The_Real_Moreliaman]

Yeah some of them do....lacies get really tame....and my mate had a 7ft salvator which was dog tame too, and the male komodo at london zoo is quite tame according to the head keeper we were speaking to, but he also said he'd never trust them fully due to their size & what they are capable of, im sure the risks of keeping a komodo would be similar to keeping venomous, if you get complacent you’ll get hurt.

[strictly_scales]

Sames true of any giant- I certainly don't get complacent around the Burm, and he's "dog-tame".

[Hopeinthedark]

i'd say its safer to keep an elephant than a komodo....elephants can be trained

I watched one of the keepers at London zoo working their komodo - he's target trained, was impressive to watch. You can train pretty much anything ;-)

[Jake201]

this is the one from london zoo i went to about 1 week agoo =] HuuGE!!!!!!!!!!!!! :O:O !!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Dextersdad]

Originally Posted by angela__k__84

I doubt it. Komodo's are endangered species and often don't do well in captivity.
I believe London and Bristol zoo have some.

Nahhh they do well in captivity. If you get a zoo licence there's a couple of place in Spain that are literally giving them away at the moment.

[reck118]

I can't see how komodos can be one of the most venomous creatures on the planet. They wait, literally weeks, for their pray to die. The amount of venom that they would have to inject would be miniscule and would be completely impractical. This study that everyone is talking about. Does the scientist who made the descovery actually say which other monitors have 'well developed venom glands' ? How does he know that they do? Has he dissected them and found the glands?

As for those who say their pray die too quickly for it to be bacteria in saliva. Bacteria that act in similar ways to the nurotoxins in many snake venoms can kill humans, in the most extreme cases, in under a day. Easily within a week. As I have previously stated, komodos can wait for their pray to die for weeks.

I am not saying it is impossible or unlikely that komodos have venom. I just want proof before I conform to the new theories.

Will

[SiUK]

Originally Posted by reck118

I can't see how komodos can be one of the most venomous creatures on the planet. They wait, literally weeks, for their pray to die. The amount of venom that they would have to inject would be miniscule and would be completely impractical. This study that everyone is talking about. Does the scientist who made the descovery actually say which other monitors have 'well developed venom glands' ? How does he know that they do? Has he dissected them and found the glands?

As for those who say their pray die too quickly for it to be bacteria in saliva. Bacteria that act in similar ways to the nurotoxins in many snake venoms can kill humans, in the most extreme cases, in under a day. Easily within a week. As I have previously stated, komodos can wait for their pray to die for weeks.
I am not saying it is impossible or unlikely that komodos have venom. I just want proof before I conform to the new theories.

Will

Dr Bryan Fry is the scientist that did the research, hes one of the (if not the) leading experts in the world right now on venom evolution. His research was very in depth, and took a long time, theres a brief overview of the paper posted here, but the full publication is on the net somewhere, but its very long and alot of it goes way over my head but then im not an expert on venom phylogenetics

[Saedcantas]

Originally Posted by reck118

Has he dissected them and found the glands?

Funnily enough, that's exactly what they did amongst other things...

Venomdoc Homepage

[ex0tics]

Originally Posted by kelboy

I don't believe they are venomous, rather that their saliva is full of multiple types of bacteria which causes extreme blood poisoning and proves fatal, maybe days after attacking their prey. They then follow scent cues to the body of their prey.

They have bottom jaw venom glands I believe the same as the gilla monster.