Deadly but not Dangerous: How Ecologically Effective are Komodo Dragons as an Apex Predator?

Apex predators comprise a broad range of large‐bodied animals that hold important ecological roles across diverse and complex environments. We evaluated whether predation by the Komodo dragon, the world's largest lizard, reduced populations of its two key large mammalian prey species. Despite having biomass and population‐level energetic values that exceeded apex mammalian predators, Komodo dragons did not reduce populations of Rusa deer and wild pigs. We suggest that fundamental differences in individual energy requirements through to species‐specific habitat requirements limit the capacity of Komodo dragons to impact their large mammal prey populations. These photographs illustrate the article “Komodo dragons are not ecological analogs of apex mammalian predators” by Tim S. Jessop, Achmad Ariefiandy, David M. Forsyth, Deni Purwandana, Craig R. White, Yunias Jackson Benu, Thomas Madsen, Henry J. Harlow, and Mike Letnic published in Ecology. https://doi.org/10.1002/ecy.297