One Komodo dragon can produce around 20 eggs per lay before incubating their eggs for up to eight months. Like other monitor lizards, Komodo dragons reproduce by mating sometime by the second or third quarter of the year (between May and August) and then laying their eggs in a nesting hole around September.

You could easily identify a Komodo dragon from a sea of crocodiles based on its color, mouth shape, and how a Komodo dragon’s legs keep its body away from the ground (compared to how crocodiles’ bodies are right on the ground).Ī Komodo dragon takes up to nine years to become a full-grown adult and can live for around 30 years. However, a crocodile has a longer mouth and more visible teeth. It has serrated teeth, rough skin, and crawls on four limbs. Komodo dragons have long bodies with a tail that’s almost the same size of its abdomen. It’s no surprise why early explorers would mistake the Komodo dragon for a crocodile, given its similar body structure. Because of its growing popularity in the west, however, the Dutch made hunting Komodo dragons illegal and regulated the lizards that were taken for study. Fun fact: the difficulty of the man who managed to collect samples and Komodo dragons to show off to the west actually inspired the popular movie, King Kong in 1933. However, the Komodo dragon would not be caught and shipped outside of its origins until 1927, when two live ones were shipped to the Reptile House at London Zoo. The first paper about the Komodo dragon was published two years later when the director of the Zoological Museum in Java received specimen samples from a collector. While fossils suggest that the Komodo dragon’s ancestors had already looked similar to it during its time, the first time a Komodo dragon was recorded was in 1910 when Europeans exploring Indonesia followed rumors of a crocodile that lived on land in the Dutch East Indies (known now as modern day Indonesia). Specifically, the Komodo dragon is one of the 80 mostly carnivorous species belonging to the Varanus genus. Komodo dragons are members of the Varanidae family, a group of both carnivorous and frugivorous lizards. However, just like the way you and your cousins don’t all look alike or share certain family traits, there is a difference between a Komodo dragon and other monitor lizards.

There is no difference between a Komodo dragon and a monitor lizard because a Komodo dragon is a monitor lizard. Komodo dragons are also arguably the deadliest monitor lizard (and reptile, for that matter) in its habitat, so keep in mind of these differences so you can properly spot one. Actually, Komodo dragons are a type of monitor lizard, but there are other monitor lizards that have other defining features. Which is why when it comes to reptiles, there are a lot of people asking what the difference is between the popular Komodo dragon and a monitor lizard. But when it comes to breeds of other animals a like an Ameraucana or a Serama (yes, those are actual chicken breeds), not many may be familiar. For example, most people can tell a Dalmatian from a Chihuahua or a goldfish from a Betta fish. When it comes to everyday animals like cats, dogs, and fish, it’s easy to tell the difference between different members of each family.

Comodo dragon size comparison