Varanus komodoensisOuwens, 1912

Komodo Dragon

Photograph placed in the public domain, CC0, via iNaturalist

A ground-dwelling, day-active, meat-eating monitor lizard from the Oriental region, reaching 157 cm snout to vent.

Reptilia › Squamata › Varanidae › Varanus

Grows to: 1570mm; greatest recorded
Eats: Carnivorous
Active: Diurnal
Lives up to: 62years

Body length across Varanidae

Longer than 99% of all monitor lizards anyone has measured.

99% of 84 species are smaller1% larger

116.4 mmthe whole family, smallest to largest1,570 mm

The bar is the rank itself: its length is the share of the family this animal exceeds. The chart below is the family’s real spread, on a logarithmic scale because body length here runs from 116.4 to 1,570 mm. The solid rule is this animal. Every bar is a count of real species, and nothing on this figure is estimated.

What is known

45 sourced facts, each taken from a named scientific dataset. How to read these.

Cited from a dataset unless a row is marked otherwise.

Standing in the world

Still living: Extant
Conservation status: Endangered
Status assessed · the year the Red List last looked: 2019
Population trend: Stable
Red List criteria: C1

The animal itself

Limbs: Four legs
Fangs: None
Longest recorded life: 62years
Body temperature when active · measured in the wild: 35.25°C95 °F
Body temp in the wild · mean, when active: 32.5–38°C91–100 °F

Size

Length snout to vent · greatest recorded: 1570mm5 ft 2 in
Length snout to vent · adult female mean: 1084mm3 ft 7 in
Largest female · snout to vent: 1083.7mm3 ft 7 in
Hatchling length · snout to vent: 177mm7 in
Largest juvenile · snout to vent: 174.5mm6.75 in
Body mass · greatestcomputed: 109,078g240 lb
Body mass at hatchingmeasured: 94g3.3 oz

How it lives

Diet: Carnivorous
How it hunts: Mixed
Active: Diurnal
Where it lives: Terrestrial
Habitat: Forest, Savanna
Biome: Tropical & Subtropical Dry Broadleaf Forests
Active season · months of the year: 12months
Region: Oriental
Mainland or island: Found only on islands
Highest it lives · above sea level: 900m
Range size: 1113km²
Density: 0–0.23per hectare
Home range · largest recorded: 5,300,000m2

Breeding

Reproduction: Oviparous
Sex decided by: Genes, ZW/ZZ
Average clutch: 18.4eggs
Eggs or young per clutch: 1–36eggs
Mean clutch: 11.3–25.5eggs
Clutches in a year: 1.75per year
Clutches a year: 0.5–1per year
First breeds at: 96–132months

Naming and history

Suborder: Sauria
Infraorder: Anguimoprha
Subspecies: No
Described by: Ouwens
Moved to another genus · since it was first described: No
Described in: 1912
Type locality: Indonesia

Keeping one

Komodo Dragon is assessed as Endangered on the IUCN Red List. Species at risk in the wild are often covered by CITES and by national law, which decide what may be bought, sold, moved across a border or kept at all — and captive-bred and wild-caught animals are usually treated differently. Check the rules where you are before acquiring one. Nothing below is a judgement about keeping this species; it is what a published welfare standard says about space, and what the animal itself was measured doing.

20 ft 7 in × 20 ft 7 in × 12 ft 11 in(628 × 628 × 393 cm)

Minimum length × width × height, for one animal. Bigger is always better.

The standard sizes ground-dwelling species at 4 × 4 × 2.5 times snout-vent length.

Mindestanforderungen an die Haltung von Reptilien (Sachverständigengutachten), German Federal Ministry for Nutrition, Agriculture and Forestry, Animal Welfare Division, 10 January 1997. The standard states these floor areas are recommendations rather than binding limits.

From this animal’s own snout-vent length of 5 ft 2 in (1570 mm), at 4 × 4 × 2.5 times it, following the German federal welfare standard — how this is worked out.

Active animals measured in the wild averaged 96 °F (35.3 °C).

Mean body temperature of active individuals measured in nature. A measurement of the animal, not a setting for a thermostat.

Feeding

A prey item should be no wider than the space between the animal's eyes.

Widely used across reptile husbandry references. The stated reason is that the gap approximates the width of the throat, so wider prey is associated with impaction. This is established practice, not a measurement.

5899kJ per day

Worked out for an animal of 109,078 g, the heaviest recorded for Komodo Dragon — so it is the top of the range, not a figure for a particular animal. Weigh yours and the number will be lower.

An upper estimate, not a feeding target, and not veterinary advice. The equation covers only what an animal burns staying alive, so a growing, gravid or recovering animal needs more — and it was measured on wild animals, which move far more than one in an enclosure. Body condition and a vet who knows the species are what a feeding decision should rest on. Where this comes from.

What nobody knows

These are not gaps in our research. No scientific dataset records them for this species — and saying so is information you cannot get from a reference that simply leaves a field out.

— Length snout to vent · adult male mean
— Length snout to vent · adult mean
— Length nose to tail · greatest recorded
— Female length · mean, nose to tail
— Length nose to tail · adult male mean
— Length nose to tail · adult mean
— Largest male · snout to vent
— Largest female · shell length
— Largest male · shell length
— Hatchling length · nose to tail
— Largest juvenile · shell length
— Egg length
— Egg width
— Body mass · a typical adult
— Body mass · adult female, mean
— Preferred body temperature · chosen in a laboratory gradient
— Eats arthropods
— Eats vertebrates
— Eats plant matter
— How the young develop
— Gestation or incubation
— Hatchling length · smallest recorded
— Hatchling length · largest recorded
— Age at first breeding · female
— Mature from · youngest recorded
— Mature by · oldest recorded
— Size at maturity · smallest recorded
— Size at maturity · largest recorded
— Venomous
— Colour on the back
— Pattern on the back
— Pupil
— Active in
— Lowest it lives · above sea level

Others in Varanidae

Take this data

Everything on this page is available as data under CC BY 4.0 — use it freely, credit it, no permission needed.

This species as JSON · the whole dataset

Cite this page

The Reptile & Amphibian Encyclopedia (2026). Varanus komodoensis. Retrieved 2026-09-08, from https://www.allanglescreatures.com/species/varanus-komodoensis

@misc{varanus_komodoensis_2026,
  title  = {Varanus komodoensis},
  author = {{The Reptile & Amphibian Encyclopedia}},
  year   = {2026},
  url    = {https://www.allanglescreatures.com/species/varanus-komodoensis}
}

Sources

Meiri, S. (2024). SquamBase — a database of squamate (Reptilia: Squamata) traits. Global Ecology and Biogeography. Public domain (CC0).
Oskyrko, O. et al. (2024). ReptTraits: a comprehensive dataset of ecological traits in reptiles. Scientific Data. Used under CC BY 4.0.
Catalogue of Life (dataset 3LR), used under CC BY.