Many say that the Komodo dragon’s bite is ridiculously infectious. Its saliva supposedly contains horrible bacteria that will melt your insides, and if you’re too big to kill directly, it will just bite you and then wait for the germs to finish you off.Australian researcher Bryan Fry was skeptical, and his research recently proved the septic bite to be a myth. He found that the bite alone is no more likely to cause infection than any other wild animal’s. Instead, dragons kill their prey with powerful venom. Once the fearsome predator latches onto a victim with its teeth, it thrashes swiftly while digging in hard. This releases the venom from tiny mouth ducts, quickly subduing smaller animals. For larger prey, it may wound them and leave just as the myth says, but venom rather than bacteria finishes the job. Photos by Will Burrard-Lucas
Posted on: Mon, 25 Aug 2014 08:01:59 +0000
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