Komodo Dragons (Varanus komodoensis)

[GuateGojira]

@Paleosuchus, nice to meet you and welcome to the forum.

I think that you are confused about past posts, and certainly words like "inaccurate and not well based" or "false" are to harsh. Please, let me explain to you the correct statements made in past posts.

If you take a look to post No. 2, 7 and 9, you can see that my conclusions were based in the study of Dr Auffenberg, published in his book of 1981 "The Behavioral Ecology of the Komodo Monitor", which as far I know, seems to be the most complete study of this animal in the past century. In that study, the average weight of the largest males, captured by him, was of 47 kg (n=12), with the heaviest been of 54 kg. More recently, the heaviest male reported by Jessop et al. (no date) was of 81.5 kg, without apparent stomach content. So, an average large male should weight between 40-50 kg, in the best case, based in the study of 1981, but the new figures reported by Jessop et al. (no date) suggest that modern male Komodo dragons could be heavier than in the 80's. In fact, @Pckts in post No. 8 already stated that an average male would be between 70-80 kg. 

Now, check the post No. 7:
"In fact, both of you are right. Pckts has a good point here, every statement most came with its backup. Now, the facts of Chaos are actually correct. Auffenberg (1981) showed that Komodos can eat up to 80% of they own weight, and Wood (1978) present the record of the huge "captive" male of 365 lb (165.5 kg ).


Now, taking together both facts, this large male Ora could weight as low as 73 kg, IF it was fully gorged. However, extreme obese animals are well know in captivity, so this was probably just a huge overfeed reptile. A wild Ora will be very lucky if manage to reach 90 kg, from my point of view."

As you can see, this was part of a little debate between two posters. The conclusion was that in fact, Komodo dragons can eat up to 80% of its own weight, which means that the large captive male that weighed c.166 kg could weigh as low as 73 kg, if it was gorged. This is what I tried to state, in any moment I am saying that a fully gorged dragon weights only 73 kg, that is nonsense.

Finally, in any moment I am discrediting Gerard Wood, check post No. 4:

"Finally, but no less important, the book of Gerard Wood (1977) and the Guinness Records of Komodo dragons. The data is very important for comparison. Check that the weights presented in the first paragraph are not averages but a range, after all, a male dragon of 90 kg and a female of 73 kg, will be clearly exceptionally large specimens."

I am just mentioning that the figures that he presents are ranges, not average figures. Now, check this in post No. 9:

"The weight range of 79-91 kg (Wood, 1977) are by no means an average figure, like Wikipedia claims."

I am criticizing Wikipedia, not Wood, because in Wikipedia they stated that those weights are "averages", when in fact, Wood never say that. We can clearly see that the average figure is the length, not the weight, which is presented in ranges.

As you can see, there is not "inaccurate and not well based" statements, and certainly there is no "false" information here.

Now that I have clarified these two points, let's check your email of Dr. Tim Jessop:

*This image is copyright of its original author

It is very interesting that his estimation of weights-range match the one of @Pckts, which means that modern adult males oras are heavier than those at 1981, and this is a good actualization of information. Maybe you could ask to Dr Jessop about the average figures for males only, because in the document that I posted from him, he mixed males and females in the average. Now, it is also interesting that he "think" that the heaviest male, not gorged or obese, could reach up to 87 kg (his heaviest male actually captured was of 81.5 kg).

So, Wood stated that male Komodo dragons weigh between 79-91 kg, and now Dr Jessop present a range of 65-80 kg (up to 81.5 kg actually weighed and up to 87 kg hypothetically). We can see that the figures of Gerard Wood are still higher than those of Dr Jessop. Now, if we include the "obese" males which eat supplemental food, then it is possible for an ora to reach over 100 kg, but those are not normal specimens.

Conclusion:
Dr Auffenberg study in the decade of the 80's stated that adult male oras had an average weight of 47 kg (n=12), with the heaviest been of 54 kg. Now, since the 2000, new studies from Dr Jessop suggest higher figures, with a mode (not average) among males between 65-80 kg (based in your email), with a maximum figure, actually recorded, of up to 81.5 kg "empty" and an hypothetical of up to 87 kg, for males that forage naturally.

Gerard Wood (1977) presented a range of weights between 79-91 kg, which is higher than the studies of Auffenberg and Jessop. However, his figures are still valuable, as the higher figure (90 kg or more) are plausible, but only when the males had supplemental food source.

Hope this helps to clarify the situation. Again, welcome to the forum. Reply