Feeding Komodo dragon on Rinca
Warning: This post contains pictures of a monster tearing to pieces a dead carcass. This is a long needed departure from nerdy search engines, weekend trips to the coastal towns and the German beer-vacations. This is a picture from a far more adventurous undertaking. Back in 2005 my friend Jon and I went to the little island of Rinca to see some of the most ferocious animals on the planet - the Rinca Dragons.
Or, as they are more commonly known, The Komodo Dragons. Rinca is the neighbouring island to the better known island of Komodo, but is not less dragon-infested than its more famous sibling. The dragons have a slightly different color, but are otherwise similar. So why not go see them?
The day we arrived we were met by a slightly nervous young Indonesian carrying a bamboo stick and little else, who led us to the guide and guard encampment close to the little dock (Rinca is only accessible by boat). He was to guide us across the island to one of the waterholes on the island. They no longer feed the dragons, but rather make them manage on their own in nature. The waterholes, however, was a good destination to see them.
Why that is, I am not sure, because we saw our first dragon sleeping lazily underneath the guards own stilted house. Still, we happily went on, with the guide eagerly pushing to get us moving.
Now it turns out it’s a special day - the dragons are restless today. On the way we get slightly annoyed at our young guide for constantly pushing us to move along when we stopped, thinking we have paid for the trip and damn well are going to enjoy it. We’ve been rushed through things in Indonesia earlier, and have learnt to just tell the locals to stop - even if they’re paid by the trip and not the hour, we want to enjoy it as much as possible. It turns out, though, that he started his day by getting attacked by the dragons, and his edginess was more a result of not wanting to repeat the experience.
It turns out the dragons have caught a big prey today - a grown water buffalo - and they can smell the stench from all corners of the island. Komodo dragons have a keen nose for death, and can smell a dying animal from miles away.
And we happen to walk straight into their feeding ground. Not in my wildest dreams as a nature photographer did I ever imagine that I would take close-up photos of a feeding Komodo Dragon - but we find ourselves not on the outskirts or looking at them through binoculars: We walk straight in between the dragons and up to the stinking carcass close enough to tear off a piece for ourselves if we please. With the guard keeping his bamboo stick ready and a with Jon keeping a keen eye on the other dragons of the pack, I get to snap happily to my heart’s content as one of the lesser dragons feeds on the leftovers. For those in the know, this picture was taken zoomed to 68mm and is only slightly cropped:
After this, it was hard to get excited about anything for a while. It’s one of Maslow’s peak experiences, where you just know it’s not gonna be this amazing again for quite some time. Still, that never feels bad - it’s just a peak, to think back on and enjoy - a moment where nature and fate allowed you to see something really special.
Although, in this case, really special was also really gory, macabre and ferocious.
More of my pictures from this trip to Rinca are here, but the text is in Norwegian.
