I think you might want to back up a little bit there.
As opportunists, these lizards will try and eat anything
they think they can get away with, even, occasionally, people.
It seems that pickings around the guides' huts must be pretty good,
'cause there are loads of dragons here and they're big!
So, these are Komodo dragons.
The largest lizards on Earth.
And just extraordinarily broad, powerful.
Okay, big fella, it's all right. It's okay.
Don't want to move quickly,
because that could trigger a predatory response.
Much safer just staying calm and still.
It looks like he's trying to regurgitate something.
Seeing the dragons on the islands of Komodo might not be hard,
but they're so efficient that they can go a very long time without hunting.
So, it could be tricky to see them at their deadly best.
I do have a few ideas though.
There's one bit of science I'd really like to try with the Komodo dragons here.
This is a bite test gauge.
It measures the force of the bite of an animal.
So, if I bite on this here...
it should register... about 120 pounds per square inch.
To get the dragons to bite, we're going to need a little bit of encouragement
in the form of some honking meat.
We have a bite test gauge with stinking rotten meat on it.
Let's see what damage our Komodo dragons can do.
Lizards aren't generally known for the force of their bite.
So, I'd like to find out what this super-sized specimen can do.
Is it going to actually bite down, though?
Okay, that felt like more of a bite.
With the smell of blood in the air,
I'm suddenly surrounded by ravenous, drooling jaws.
Okay, guys. It's all right. We'll let it take it.
Back off. Back off. That's fine.
So, they're just chomping away at it now.
Hopefully...
wow... they'll get the meat off there and I'll be able to recover
the bite test gauge and see what we registered.
So, you can really see how that tail can be used as a defensive weapon.
It's like it's been hit by a baseball bat.
Just going to wait a couple of minutes before I go in and get my gauge back.
With the meat gone,
I carefully go in to see how much power the dragons are packing.
Whoa!
Well, that is much more than I was expecting.
We've got nearly 600 pounds per square inch,
which is five times a human bite force
and much more than I'd expect from a monitor lizard.
I mean, these animals have really light-weight skulls.
They actually rely far more on their very sharp, backwards-facing teeth
to deliver a killing bite than they do the force of their bite.
So, to have a bite that strong is incredible.