More than 30 years ago, the Komodo dragon population on Padar island, one of the five in the current protected area, had gone extinct but was repopulated in 2004. A majority of the animals are found within the Komodo protected area, and it is the ones outside that are more imminently threatened. The IUCN estimates the total Komodo dragon population to be about 3,458, excluding very young hatchlings.

In Indonesia, the species has eight subpopulations living among the five islands that comprise the Komodo National Park, and on Flores island. Despite pandemic travel restrictions, they remain one of the country’s biggest tourist draws, and authorities are controversially trying to build a “Jurassic Park” style resort to capitalize on the interest, a move that has drawn widespread criticism. Komodo dragons are endemic to a number of islands in Indonesia, most famously Komodo island where the giant lizard derives its name. Having a “low dispersal capacity” means a species is not well able, if at all, to move away from its birth area and establish itself in a new habitat. Rising global temperatures and sea levels are expected to reduce the Komodo dragon’s suitable habitat by at least 30 percent in the next 45 years, the IUCN said in a separate statement. “Because Komodo dragons have a very restricted geographical range, and thus a low dispersal capacity, climate change could thus negatively affect Komodo dragons,” Mark Auliya, chair of the IUCN Species Survival Commission Monitor Lizard Specialist Group, told VICE World News. But following a recent assessment of the species, the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) has moved the world’s largest lizard from “vulnerable” to “endangered” on its Red List of Threatened Species.

Comodo dragon picture