What is everyone's opinion on introducing Komodo Dragons in Australia? There are pros but there are also cons.
Pros
>Will be reintroduced to its place of origin
>Will fill the apex predator niche
>Will control the invasive populations of animals that plague australia
>Will curb the populations of wild cats, dogs, foxes, camels, etc.
>Would fill a void left by megalania
Cons
>Will also attack people
>Might disrupt the established ecosystem
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You're all forgetting the fact that the komodo ISN'T an invasive species to begin with.
Unlike the cane toad or burmese python or what have you, komodos lived in Australia thousands of years ago until humans killed them off. This is like reintroducing wolves to yellowstone, only good ecological effects can come from this.
I would say mostly a con because I don't think they will do this introduction perfectly, it could work, but i think the margin for error is too great.
no don't do it. just leave them and feed them tree rats. save the dragons, thin out the pest monkpai population, win win.
can you own one of these as a pet?
No.
Straight up no.
Imagine having animal with instincts of a reptile (I.e eat everything that moves) while being as active and intelligent as a dog. But this dog weighs 200 lbs and has an appetite to eat 80% of it's body weight.
One. Bite.
One bite is all it takes for it to kill you. They tear flesh right off from bone, and said wound is now coated in anticoagulant venom that will make you bleed profusely from said wound. This isn't even the worst part either as they start eating you alive, not giving a frick that you're even still breathing.
Also they're endangered so it is illegal to even own one as a pet.
My cautious as frick advice, if you want to have a large monitor lizard as a pet, The Crocodile Monitor is the largest monitor you can legally own. You MUST create a bond with said animal as soon as they are a hatchling as they are equally capable of killing you when they reach adulthood.
I'd highly suggest you, however, to simply get an Ackie.
>t. Clints reptiles watcher
All of what you said is bullshit lmao. They’re just a big lizard, owning one would just be the lizard equivalent of owning a retic or anaconda and plenty of people keep them
>Imagine having animal with instincts of a reptile (I.e eat everything that moves)
They are fantastic at discerning food from people and are easily target trainable, they don’t have a feeding response anywhere near as strong as a lace monitor or something
>One bite is all it takes for it to kill you.
>said wound is now coated in anticoagulant venom that will make you bleed profusely from said wound.
This is a meme. Only way it’s killing you in one bite is if it severs an artery, which a big dog would be just as likely to do if it were to bite
>The Crocodile Monitor is the largest monitor you can legally own.
They’re half the size of a big Asian water monitor
I agree with this but Komodo dragons do have special legal protections that make them very, very difficult to legally privately own
Would get fricking destroyed by Salties.
They will send Lyrebirds extinct. It's just another predator that will decimate the Lyrebird population.
THINK OF THE FRICKING LYREBIRDS
Those can fly though. They are also way too small to be worth the energy hunting for komodo dragons. If anything, they'll probably kill a lot of the invasive cats, foxes, and dogs which will help the lyrebird.
There's a few other species that once lived on Australia (or had close relatives that did) which should also be introduced. Things like the dwarf/northern cassowary, long beaked echidnas, tasmanian devils, etcetera.
Proxy species are also possible, but would need to be done carefully. Things like giant tortoises being a proxy for meiolania is the first that comes to mind since the tortoises are ecosystem engineers and would be kept in check by the abundance of predators, unlike introduced placental mammals such as camels or rhinos or whatever.
Also kill the invasive mammals and help spread the threatened australian species like vultures, pythons, and quolls.
The rare small ancient mammals and birds are gonna take a massive hit as always, not to forget the unique bugs too, I love Komodos but this is a bad idea 🙁
Unlikely, Komodos only really eat those things when they're juveniles and wouldn't have an more of an impact than any of the equally sized monitors already existing in Australia. Adult Komodos would be eating large common animals like kangaroos, wombats and feral domestic animals. Most of those ancient birds/mammals would have evolved alongside Komodo dragons anyways
You also forget that camels are in Australia are around three million of them.
If they do it in the outback, in central Australia or tropical Queensland, it will do well.
At the very least they should stick a bunch in a big fenced area where they can live wild as an insurance population like they’ve done with Tasmanian devils on the mainland
>Will also attack people
I see no issues here.
We should build them new islands to expand too until we terraform Mars enough to introduce them there.
I only see pros.
Start with abbo reserves.
>eats cane toad
>dies
>>eats cane toad
>>dies
>"Predators outside the cane toad's native range include the whistling kite (Haliastur sphenurus), the rakali (Hydromys chrysogaster), the black rat (Rattus rattus) and the water monitor (Varanus salvator)."
Sure thing, fella.
Komodo dragons are Australian Varanids and like all Australian Varanids they lack the gene that makes Asian Varanids resistant to bufotoxins. Other Australian Varanids like argus monitors were hit pretty bad by cane toads
Genetically modify the mother frickers
Cope diapcel
watch it backfire like most of these lame brain introduction plans. I admit something needs to be done before they die out. The komodos are all on one island that could be taken by the sea, or the locals could kill them off like they're doing now.
>most of these lame brain introduction plans.
Has reintroduction ever actually worked?
Yes moron. Yellowstone wolves, bison and muskox, Pleistocene park, beavers in Europe, Tasmanian devils on the mainland.
It's easy to hand wave it and go "B-BUT MUH INVASIVE SPECIES!" instead of actually doing it and seeing what happens.
I am all for it
what dumb fricking thread. stop with messing nature and introducing animals. Look what happened with those frogs.
Tho unlike those frogs, Komodo Dragons were actually present in Australia as little as 50,000 years ago before abbos came in and killed them.
>>Will also attack people
disrupt the established ecosystem
Guess who has done/is doing that already.
This.
How could you even hate aboriginals? You killed off pretty much all of them and the few that do exist live mostly in the northern territories and other uninhabited hunks of rock.
>How could you even hate aboriginals? You killed off pretty much all of them and the few that do exist live mostly in the northern territories and other uninhabited hunks of rock.
YOU ARE WRONG LEONIDAS
Can you homosexuals stop race baiting the thread? Frick off back to
or shut up.
Bring these back.
>Dude Europe used to have hyenas so we should reintroduce them
Yes.
Your point?
The difference is that the hyenas that exist today are not the same species and may not even be adapted for the same environment, whereas the Komodo dragon that exists today is, at worst, one subspecies and the ones that existed on Australia were another subspecies. Not to mention there are other monitor species in Australia and the largest of these, the perentie, fulfills the same role at a smaller size.
>DUDE INVASIVE SPECIES LMAO!
It's a big monitor that chinamen are already hunting to extinction. They'll never go out of control because it will be piss easy to cull or even eradicate them any time. The Abbos already did it thousands of years ago.
>chinamen are already hunting to extinction
why do they have to try to destroy everything, bros?
Lack of trust in western medicine, likely due to ignorance from information suppressing government, high degree of nationalism also causes them to believe that their own people's ancient remedies are superior.
Also possibly due to government psyop to prevent citizens from uprising and demanding more medical spending, may account for aforementioned suppression of information.
Tldr: culture
blah blah blah. It would be cool therefore it should be done
This. We need to start removing invasive species, beginning with Humanity.
They will be eaten by the wildlife there (Australians)
Can confirm, ate like a king last time someone tried introducing them