Komodo dragons — the world's largest living lizards — face welfare pressures from unregulated tourism in Komodo National Park and from the impacts of climate change on their small island habitats in Indonesia.
Komodo dragon welfare is primarily threatened by disruption of the ecological systems they depend on. Prey depletion from illegal hunting on park islands reduces food availability, forcing dragons into more aggressive behavior toward humans and domestic animals. Tourism-related feeding and baiting habituates dragons to human presence in ways that increase human-dragon conflict and alter natural foraging strategies. Habituation has led to attacks on tourists who approach too closely. Rising sea levels threaten the coastal foraging areas where dragon prey species concentrate. Though reptile welfare science is less developed than mammalian welfare research, Komodo dragons show clear stress responses to handling and pursuit, and their complex predatory behaviors represent a sophisticated behavioral repertoire that captive and disturbed conditions can fail to accommodate.