Editing Komodo dragon (section)

===Diet===
[[File:Komodo Dragon Eating Rinca.jpg|thumb|Komodo dragon on Rinca feeding on a [[water buffalo]] corpse]]
Komodo dragons are [[apex predator]]s.<ref name="firefly"/> They are carnivores; although they have been considered as eating mostly carrion,<ref name="world">{{cite book |last1=Mattison |first1=Chris |year=1992 |orig-year=1989 |title=Lizards of the World |publisher=Facts on File |location=New York |pages=16,57,99,175 |isbn=978-0-8160-5716-0}}</ref> they will frequently ambush live prey with a stealthy approach. When suitable prey arrives near a dragon's ambush site, it will suddenly charge at the animal at high speeds and go for the underside or the throat.<ref name="location"/> The majority of the extant Komodo dragon population's diet is made up of introduced ungulates, such as deer, pigs, and buffalo. <ref>Shine, Richard; Somaweera, Ruchira (April 2019). "Last lizard standing: The enigmatic persistence of the Komodo dragon". Global Ecology and Conservation. 18: e00624. Bibcode:2019GEcoC..1800624S. doi:10.1016/j.gecco.2019.e00624.</ref>

Komodo dragons do not deliberately allow the prey to escape with fatal injuries but try to kill prey outright using a combination of lacerating damage and blood loss. They have been recorded as killing wild pigs within seconds,<ref name=auffenberg1>{{cite book|author=Auffenberg, Walter |title=The Behavioral Ecology of the Komodo Monitor |publisher=University Presses of Florida |location=Gainesville, Florida |year=1981 |isbn=978-0-8130-0621-5}}</ref> and observations of Komodo dragons tracking prey for long distances are likely misinterpreted cases of prey escaping an attack before succumbing to infection. Most prey attacked by a Komodo dragon reputedly suffer from said sepsis and will later be eaten by the same or other lizards.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Bull |first1=J. J. |last2=Jessop |first2=Tim S. |last3=Whiteley |first3=Marvin |date=2010-06-21 |title=Deathly Drool: Evolutionary and Ecological Basis of Septic Bacteria in Komodo Dragon Mouths |journal=PLOS ONE |language=en |volume=5 |issue=6 |pages=e11097 |doi=10.1371/journal.pone.0011097 |issn=1932-6203 |pmc=2888571 |pmid=20574514 |bibcode=2010PLoSO...511097B |doi-access=free }}</ref>

Komodo dragons eat by tearing large chunks of flesh and swallowing them whole while holding the carcass down with their forelegs. For smaller prey up to the size of a goat, their loosely articulated jaws, flexible skulls, and expandable stomachs allow them to swallow prey whole. The undigested vegetable contents of a prey animal's stomach and intestines are typically avoided.<ref name="southsea"/> Copious amounts of red saliva the Komodo dragons produce help to lubricate the food, but swallowing is still a long process (15–20&nbsp;minutes to swallow a goat). A Komodo dragon may attempt to speed up the process by ramming the carcass against a tree to force it down its throat, sometimes ramming so forcefully that the tree is knocked down.<ref name="southsea"/> A small tube under the tongue that connects to the lungs allows it to breathe while swallowing.<ref name="location"/>

After eating up to 80% of its body mass in one meal,<ref name="firefly">{{cite book |editor1-last=Halliday |editor1-first=Tim |editor1-link=Tim Halliday |editor2-last=Adler |editor2-first=Kraig |year=2002 |title=Firefly Encyclopedia of Reptiles and Amphibians |publisher=Firefly Books |location=Hove |isbn=978-1-55297-613-5 |pages=[https://archive.org/details/fireflyencyclope0000unse_p6l7/page/112 112–13, 144, 147, 168–69] |url=https://archive.org/details/fireflyencyclope0000unse_p6l7/page/112}}</ref> it drags itself to a sunny location to speed digestion, as the food could rot and poison the dragon if left undigested in its stomach for too long. Because of their slow metabolism, large dragons can survive on as few as 12&nbsp;meals a year.<ref name="location"/> After digestion, the Komodo dragon regurgitates a mass of horns, hair, and teeth known as the gastric pellet, which is covered in malodorous mucus. After regurgitating the gastric pellet, it rubs its face in the dirt or on bushes to get rid of the mucus.<ref name="location"/>

[[File:Komodo excrement.jpg|thumb|upright|Komodo excrement has a dark portion, which is stool, and a whitish portion, which is [[urate]], the nitrogenous end-product of their digestion process]]
The eating habits of Komodo dragons follow a hierarchy, with the larger animals generally eating before the smaller ones. The largest male typically asserts his dominance and the smaller males show their submission by use of body language and rumbling hisses. Dragons of equal size may resort to "wrestling". Losers usually retreat, though they have been known to be killed and eaten by victors.<ref name=auffenberg/><ref>{{cite book |last=Mader |first=Douglas R. |year=1996 |title=Reptile Medicine and Surgery |publisher=WB Saunders Co. |page=16 |isbn=0721652085}}</ref>

The Komodo dragon's diet varies depending on stage of growth. Young Komodo dragons will eat insects, birds and bird's eggs and small reptiles, while larger Komodo dragons (typically over {{cvt|20|kg|lb}}) prefer large [[ungulate]] prey, such as [[Javan rusa]] deer, [[Wild boar|wild pigs]] and [[water buffalo]].<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Purwandana |first1=Deni |last2=Ariefiandy |first2=Achmad |last3=Imansyah |first3=M. Jeri |last4=Seno |first4=Aganto |last5=Ciofi |first5=Claudio |last6=Letnic |first6=Mike |last7=Jessop |first7=Tim S. |date=April 2016 |title=Ecological allometries and niche use dynamics across Komodo dragon ontogeny |url=http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s00114-016-1351-6 |journal=The Science of Nature |language=en |volume=103 |issue=3–4 |page=27 |doi=10.1007/s00114-016-1351-6 |pmid=26936625 |bibcode=2016SciNa.103...27P |s2cid=16570624 |issn=0028-1042}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Jessop |first1=Tim S. |last2=Madsen |first2=Thomas |last3=Sumner |first3=Joanna |last4=Rudiharto |first4=Heru |last5=Phillips |first5=John A. |last6=Ciofi |first6=Claudio |date=February 2006 |title=Maximum body size among insular Komodo dragon populations covaries with large prey density |url=https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.0030-1299.2006.14371.x |journal=Oikos |language=en |volume=112 |issue=2 |pages=422–429 |doi=10.1111/j.0030-1299.2006.14371.x |bibcode=2006Oikos.112..422J |issn=0030-1299}}</ref> Occasionally, they attack and bite humans. Sometimes they consume human corpses, digging up bodies from shallow graves.<ref name="liz"/>{{rp|84}} This habit of raiding graves caused the villagers of Komodo to move their graves from sandy to clay ground, and pile rocks on top of them, to deter the lizards.<ref name="southsea">{{cite book |author1=Ballance, Alison |author2=Morris, Rod |title=South Sea Islands: A natural history |publisher=Firefly Books Ltd |location=Hove |year= 2003|isbn=978-1-55297-609-8}}</ref> Dwarf species of ''[[Stegodon]]'' (a proboscidean related to living elephants) are suggested to have been a primary prey item of the Komodo dragon during the [[Pleistocene]], prior to the introduction of their modern ungulate prey, which were only introduced to the islands in the [[Holocene]], around 10-7,000 years ago.<ref name="Diamond2">{{cite journal |last=Diamond |first=Jared M. |year=1987 |title=Did Komodo dragons evolve to eat pygmy elephants? |journal=[[Nature (journal)|Nature]] |volume=326 |issue=6116 |page=832 |bibcode=1987Natur.326..832D |doi=10.1038/326832a0 |s2cid=37203256}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Shine |first1=Richard |last2=Somaweera |first2=Ruchira |date=April 2019 |title=Last lizard standing: The enigmatic persistence of the Komodo dragon |journal=Global Ecology and Conservation |language=en |volume=18 |pages=e00624 |doi=10.1016/j.gecco.2019.e00624|doi-access=free |bibcode=2019GEcoC..1800624S }}</ref>

The Komodo dragon drinks by sucking water into its mouth via [[buccal pumping]] (a process also used for respiration), lifting its head, and letting the water run down its throat.<ref name=auffenberg1/>