Komodo Dragons - September 2008

Komodo Dragons!

With Zeke's shift from cats to lizards, we have even more new learning.... We are starting to classify and sort animals by their characteristics. I love this! Zeke is an amazing sponge, taking in everything and applying it and really learning.

Komodo Dragons are fascinating reptiles and a great way to learn the basics of what makes a reptile a reptile.

Now we've learned:

• Komodo dragons are the largest reptiles on earth
• Komodo dragons live on the islands of Indonesia
• Komodo dragons have saliva that has bacteria that can kill humans if they are bitten
• Komodo dragons are predators, but also eat any dead meat they can find/carrion

And also:

• Reptiles have scales - Mammals have fur (most)
• Reptiles are exothermic - Mammals are endothermic
• Retpiles lay eggs (most) - Mammals have live births
• Reptiles do not take care of their babies after they are born (most don't) - Mammals take extensive care of their babies after birth - including nursing them.

This last fact was most interesting to Zeke. We learned that when Komodo Dragons are born, their moms/dads are no where to be found. In fact, the newly hatched komodo dragons run from their shells to the trees where they stay for about THREE years. Why? Because their only predators are larger komodo dragons. Even there biological parents will eat them if they get a chance. Zeke was totally stunned at this fact. The good mammal that he is, he couldn't understand the workings of the reptilian brain. Thus, we started a discussion about animal behavior and how it is different within the different classes of animals. Very cool!