Komodo Dragons in Las Vegas!! June 23
Oh my god I love this lizard!! Isn’t he cute? This is the newest addition to the Shark Reef Aquarium at Mandalay Bay.
I want to see this sucker in action at feeding time! Feeding big fish smaller fish is fun, sure, but watching one of the most storied land predators at chow time has got to be a sight to behold. Ah, yes… the gnashing of teeth!
Komodo Dragons are known for their ravenous, carnivore-style appetites. What you may not know is that they aren’t necessarily all attack-kill-eat in the wild… at least not in the time frame you might be thinking about. Komodo Dragons have a few curious adaptations. They have a bit of venom in their bite that causes almost immediate swelling and pain. This venom might provide an opportunity for dinner immediately. If not, their bite has a second adaptation: highly toxic bacteria. The Komodo Dragon itself is immune to these bacteria, so they aren’t harmed, but the bacteria cause death in the victim by way of septicemia (a perfectly horrible way to die, by the way) in a matter of days, thereby providing a tasty, if not immediate, lizard lunch.
So having this awesome lizard, native to the Pacific Islands, living here in Las Vegas, Nevada, got me thinking… You know, we have the Nevada Test Site just to the north of us a few miles. Generally, any radioactive dust from that area heads east due to the prevailing winds. Sometimes, though, usually during the Summer monsoon season, the winds reverse direction and blow east to west. In at least one big dust and rain storm since I’ve lived in the Las Vegas Valley, the winds blew the opposite way across the valley bringing all sorts of little rocks and things with it. Now, Komodo Dragons have yet another curious adaptation that makes them unique: parthenogenesis. What’s parthenogenesis, you ask? Well, it’s an ability that some lower level species of plants and organisms have that allow them to reproduce with one of their eggs without fertilization. Komodo Dragons also happen to be capable of parthenogenesis. So even though there is only one Komodo Dragon living here… On one ill-fated, perfect storm of a day, I can imagine a storm blowing into the valley by way of the Nevada Nuclear Test Site, carrying with it just enough radiation to give birth to a giant beast of a Dragon! I mean, come on! I saw Godzilla! That’s exactly what happened! Just watch the intro! We might have an entire army of infernal, Godzilla-like creatures out here in the desert to contend with. We might actually have to call on Michael Jackson to finish his plans to build his robot with frickin’ lasers to roam the desert… just to do battle with these beasts!
Did I mention that Starbucks made a special Komodo Dragon Blend for the opening day of the dragon exhibit? 