Editing Komodo dragon (section)

===Saliva===
Although previous studies proposed that Komodo dragon saliva contains a variety of highly septic bacteria that would help to bring down prey,<ref name="auffenberg">{{cite book |author=Auffenberg, Walter |title=The Behavioral Ecology of the Komodo Monitor |publisher=University Presses of Florida |location=Gainesville |year=1981 |page=406 |isbn=978-0-8130-0621-5 }}</ref><ref name="Aerobic">{{cite journal|pmid=12238371|year=2002|last1=Montgomery|first1=JM|last2=Gillespie|first2=D|last3=Sastrawan|first3=P|last4=Fredeking|first4=TM|last5=Stewart|first5=GL|title=Aerobic salivary bacteria in wild and captive Komodo dragons|volume=38|issue=3|pages=545–51|journal=Journal of Wildlife Diseases|url=http://www.jwildlifedis.org/cgi/reprint/38/3/545.pdf|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071214133444/http://www.jwildlifedis.org/cgi/reprint/38/3/545.pdf|url-status=dead|archive-date=14 December 2007|doi=10.7589/0090-3558-38.3.545|s2cid=9670009}}</ref> research in 2013 suggested that the bacteria in the mouths of Komodo dragons are ordinary and similar to those found in other carnivores. Komodo dragons have good mouth hygiene. To quote Bryan Fry: "After they are done feeding, they will spend 10 to 15 minutes lip-licking and rubbing their head in the leaves to clean their mouth&nbsp;... Unlike people have been led to believe, they do not have chunks of rotting flesh from their meals on their teeth, cultivating bacteria." They do have a slashing bite, which normally includes a dose of their neurotoxic venom and anticoagulant saliva.<ref>D’Amore, D. C., Moreno, K., McHenry, C. R., & Wroe, S. (2011). The effects of biting and pulling on the forces generated during feeding in the Komodo dragon (Varanus komodoensis). PloS One, 6(10), e26226–e26226. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0026226</ref> Komodo dragons do not wait for prey to die and track it at a distance, as [[viper]]s do; observations of them hunting deer, boar and in some cases buffalo reveal that they kill prey in less than half an hour.<ref name="Goldstein paper">{{Cite journal|last1=Goldstein|first1=Ellie J. C.|last2=Tyrrell|first2=Kerin L.|last3=Citron|first3=Diane M.|last4=Cox|first4=Cathleen R.|last5=Recchio|first5=Ian M.|last6=Okimoto|first6=Ben|last7=Bryja|first7=Judith|last8=Fry|first8=Bryan G.|date=June 2013|title= Anaerobic and aerobic bacteriology of the saliva and gingiva from 16 captive Komodo dragons (Varanus komodoensis): new implications for the "bacteria as venom" model |journal=Journal of Zoo and Wildlife Medicine|volume=44|issue=2|pages=262–272|doi=10.1638/2012-0022R.1|issn=1042-7260|pmid=23805543|s2cid=9932073}}</ref>

The observation of prey dying of sepsis would then be explained by the natural instinct of [[water buffalo]]s, which are not native to the islands where the Komodo dragon lives, to run into water after escaping an attack. The warm, faeces-filled water would then cause the infections. The study used samples from 16 captive dragons (10 adults and six neonates) from three US zoos.<ref name="Goldstein paper"/>