Tourskomodo.com - 25 Jun 2008

Another island inhabit by the Komodo Dragon is Rinca Island. Even there are now feeding places on the island and spotting the monitor is more a matter of luck and your guide knowledge, but there are much other abundant species: several monkey colonies, wild water buffalos, deer, horses, pigs, bush turkeys and eagles

These islands are composed of a silica-rich rock called rhyolite porphyry. The rhyolite contains large, perfect doubly terminated quartz crystals (lacking the prism faces), some of which are up to a centimeter long. The rhyolite is also rich in magnetite, which weathers out of the rock to form magnetite-rich sand on some of the beaches. In places, silica-rich groundwater has replaced the bedrock with chert. On Rinca, one can see fragments of worked chert lying around near the outcrops. These rocks are geologically distinct from the rocks found on islands to the east and west, which are more mafic in character.

If you want to see the big Komodo dragons, you should get to the park early, before 6:00 a.m. when the first tour starts. Even this early, the island is hot. You should dress lightly, and bring a lot of water. Before the tour starts, you can visit the little museum they have at park headquarters, where you can see an exhibit of the various rock types found on the island, and a display of all their poisonous snakes, of which there are a great many. You can also pet the many deer that hang out at park headquarters. The big dragons don't come into the park headquarters area, so the deer are safe there. You can also see a lot of the little Komodo dragons, the young ones, who must spend their first several years in trees to be safe from their elders, who would gladly eat them. Komodo dragons are cannibals who eat their own young, and even other adults when they can pull it off.

The tour is led by a couple of men from the park service. The men carry long, forked sticks, but say that their main protection from the dragons is the special rapport they have with them. They tell us that the dragon is called ora locally, and they talk about their habits and behaviors. They used to bring a goat with them to feed to the dragons on the river bank where the lizards gather, but this practice has been discontinued.

10 Jan 2009 » Cunca Wulang Canyon
08 Des 2008 » Lombok Tours
09 Agu 2008 » The Varanus Komodoensis
09 Agu 2008 » Kelimutu National Park
06 Agu 2008 » Sumba Island And Sumba Tours
03 Agu 2008 » Komodo Dragon Island
31 Jul 2008 » About Orangutan Bornoe
31 Jul 2008 » Tanjung Puting National Park
20 Jul 2008 » South Sulawesi & Bugis
18 Jul 2008 » Exploring Tanah Toraja
18 Jul 2008 » Sumatra Highlight
17 Jul 2008 » Lombok Scuba Diving
02 Jul 2008 » The Island Of Lombok
28 Jun 2008 » Nias Siberut Island
28 Jun 2008 » Borobudur Temple
27 Jun 2008 » Celebes Adventure Indonesia
25 Jun 2008 » Sumba Pasola Ceremoni
24 Jun 2008 » Kelimutu Lake And Mountain
24 Jun 2008 » Rinjani Mountain in Lombok
20 Jun 2008 » General Info Of Lombok
17 Jun 2008 » The Komodo dragon
17 Jun 2008 » Flores Island Tourism Information
07 Jun 2008 » Komodo National Park
07 Jun 2008 » Mbeliling Trekking Campaign
31 Mei 2008 » Papua Adventure
31 Mei 2008 » Sumba Island
31 Mei 2008 » Bromo Mountaint Trekking