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| Today we get to see dragons... ok, Komodo Dragons, but still dragons. |
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| The ship couldn't get close to this dock, so it was anchored out in the Savu Sea, and passengers were tendered to Rinca Island. Rinca Island is the second biggest island of the many islands that make up the 76 square miles of Komodo National Park. |
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| Interesting boat at the dock. |
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| Sculpture at the dock shows a dragon battle |
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| Photos of informational panels at the dock. |
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| We head out in groups of maybe 15 people following a wooden boardwalk. |
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| Looking over the side of the walkway, we could see holes in the ground. The guide explained that the holes are homes of crabs, and the brown piles are water buffalo feces. We did see a macaque monkey, which eats the crabs. |
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| Double click on photo to enlarge for reading. |
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| There are approximately 3,300 Komodo dragons in the National Park with 1,500 of them on Rinca Island. This is the best place to see Komodo Dragons in the wild. |
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| Komodo Dragons only eat every 1 to 1.5 months but they eat 80% of their weight at a time. |
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| Some Komodo Dragons were hiding out under the staff housing for two reasons. #1 it was the heat of the day and #2 there were also water buffalo under there. The dragons try to catch a buffalo unaware, but they run when the water buffalo start toward them. |
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| I had a video of the water buffalo moving and all the dragons leaving the shade, but it wouldn't upload. |
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| Water buffalo leaving. |
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| Water buffalo are not native to the island. |
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| I spotted this small Komodo dragon on the opposite side of the walkway. They go out at midday because that's when the large dragons are less active. The large ones will eat the small ones. |
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| In the visitor center we learned about these two dragon skeletons, one female and one male. |
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| Rinca Island is down at the bottom |
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