How to train your dragon with Chester Zoo

Komodo dragons can be some of the most ferocious reptiles on the planet. As apex predators capable of hunting water buffalo, working with these animals poses a challenge. We spoke to Matt Cook, Lead Keeper of Reptiles and Amphibians at Chester Zoo about how experts at the zoo train Komodo dragons.

Life will find a way

Komodo Dragons are fierce Varanids from East Indonesia. These giant lizards inhabit the islands of Flores, Rinca and Komodo (as well as a few small neighbouring islands). Since they were first described in 1912, scientists have made countless discoveries relating to the dragon’s natural history. From misconceptions around their hunting techniques and venom glands to understanding their habitat requirements and distribution, many of these breakthroughs were the result of collaborative efforts between zoos and local rangers in these extremely remote areas.

Matt Cook is the lead keeper of the Komodo dragons at Chester Zoo. He has completed various fieldwork initiatives across Komodo and Flores. Recently, Matt embarked on research to outline the Komodo dragons' natural distribution, which is actually much larger than previously thought and stretches far along the coastlines of Flores. “Working with Komodo dragons is a privilege” explained Matt. “I’ve worked with numerous Varanids but Komodo Dragons are so unique in how they move, the way they look and their characteristics. The Salvador monitors (Varanus salvadorii) in Papua New Guinea are very similar, they’re huge and they are beautiful animals, but they’re not Komodo dragons.”

The temperament of Komodo dragons both in captivity and in the wild can be somewhat misleading. Tourists visiting Komodo often return with anecdotes of lazy, unthreatening animals. Some international zoos also walk their dragons around the park, to get closer to visitors. Yet, these apex predators can be extremely dangerous when they need to be. Chester Zoo chooses not to take any chances. Matt continued: “Dragons are very calm a lot of the time but it’s when they go into feeding mode that they turn into a genuine threat to humans.”

“You would never want to be in a situation where a dragon could mistake a human for food. For this reason, we don’t use contact when working with Komodo dragons. One weird smell, one weird movement or one weird sight, such as feeding gloves, can cause the dragon to associate it with food, and that can be dangerous.”

Of course, there will be times when keepers need to carry out necessary close-contact observations and veterinary procedures. Therefore, training is crucial to allow keepers to manage their animals in the safest and most stress-free way for both the animal and keeper.

Two Komodo dragons (Varanus komodoensis) fighting during breeding season

Training methods

Zoos implement a range of training methods. Some are universal across most large animals and others are more specific. A popular method for reasonably clever animals is ‘target training’. This method is only used for a handful of the most cognitively able reptiles, such as monitor lizards and crocodilians.

“Training dragons is not unlike training a lot of our other animals” explained Matt. “Komodo dragons will respond really well to training as they’re intelligent animals. The best advice I can give is to keep it basic. Most of the training we do is target training or using a sound.”

“The goal here is to get a dragon to stay still. So, for x-rays, weighing, and any data collection on the animal, you’ll want it to be stationed in an area. This can be done with a target, which is what we’re doing with the Komodo dragons here at Chester Zoo.”

“It is just about associating the target with food. Just a yellow ball on the end of a stick, then when the animal touches the ball, click, reward, click, reward, click, reward. The idea is that the animal pairs up the target with food. Obviously, dragons are a little different with their feeding habits. If a dragon’s really full and it’s eaten well, it won’t respond particularly well to a little treat. However, dragons are scavengers, so they will still accept small foods.”

“When you see a giant animal in the wild turning its huge head to pick up a tiny bit of meat, you know you’re dealing with a scavenger. This can make things easier for us when it comes to training, compared to other animals that won’t respond to small items at all.”

A Komodo dragon (Varanus komodoensis) feeds on a carcass

Training Varanids

For private keepers, training their Varanids can be challenging. Private keepers often have more limited resources zoos. For example, even the largest private enclosures are unlikely to provide enough space for a keeper to walk in and isolate the lizard in a separate area, but that is not to say that training is impossible.

Matt continued: “There is use for training pet Varanids. It’s a little trickier as you need to use a lot of space and I wouldn’t encourage anyone to just do it without thinking it through as you can develop bad habits and you can put yourself in a worse situation.”

“Obviously, if you’re starting to build a feed and training response with your target and your animal is loose with you, the worst thing you can do is not realise that the animal doesn’t understand that the target is where you want it to go. You might think it’s coming to the target but it’s actually coming to you, so it could think you’re the target, and if it thinks you’re the food you can put yourself in a dangerous position. Even the smaller Varanids can give a nasty bite. Keepers often feed with tongs, so it might have already associated the keeper with food, but you really want to give a bit of distance between yourself and the target to make sure the target is the focus of attention.”

Target training is certainly the most widely used training method for reptiles and possibly a good start for keepers of Varanids to experiment with. However, anyone aiming to train their Varanids can find that it could be detrimental to the keeper/animal relationship without prior research. Just like the training methods of dogs, if mistakes are made early on and continually reinforced, the animal will not behave in the desired way.

Matt told us some of his top tips for anyone aiming to train their monitor lizards: “Firstly, you want to distance yourself away. For some of the really small dragons, we have a huge pole, made from a lot of piping with a yellow ball on the end. That helps the animal go towards the target, you need to give the animal some leeway.”

“The other mistake I see is when people hold the target out and also have a pair of tongs with the food. Although they look very different to you, to a monitor lizard it doesn’t look all that different. You’re not making it easy for the animal.”

“I would urge caution when it comes to training and maybe even learn a bit from dog trainers, even just the principals. It’s about positive reinforcement, ignoring the negative responses, eventually the animal will pick up on what it’s supposed to do, but the best tip is to make it easy for the animal. When we first started, we used a target and then threw the food, so there was no connection to the keeper.”

A commonly-kept species of monitor lizard, a savannah monitor (Varanus exanthematicus) eats an egg

Dragons in captivity

The first Komodo dragons to be exhibited in a zoo were a pair on display at London Zoo’s Reptile House in 1927. Since then, various collections have exhibited these animals in a bid to inspire people of all ages and interests to care for and understand reptiles. Having been bred successfully in captivity now for many decades, Komodo Dragons are increasingly popular in zoos across the world.

Many people do question why the animals in zoos typically look much smaller than their wild counterparts. Although extensive DNA analysis and research have not taken place yet, experts are beginning to theorise their own ideas.

Water buffalo and deer were introduced to the islands of Komodo and Rinca by early Dutch settlers for farming and agriculture. These large prey items required an equally large predator to hunt them and thus natural selection may have swayed the survival odds in favour of the largest dragons. However, the animals on Flores are typically smaller and leaner, as their largest prey items are fruit bats and arboreal mammals. Eventually, this could have created contrasting morphological differences between the two. As Flores is the largest of the islands with much better infrastructure, it is thought that the dragons that first entered zoos were possibly sourced from this locale. Although none of this theory has been scientifically documented or published and researchers have confirmed that all locales belong to the same nominate species Varanus komodoensis, it is an interesting and little-known theory about Komodo dragon adaptability.

A Komodo dragon (Varanus komodoensis) investigating a coconut on the beach

Threats facing dragons

This year, the Komodo Dragon was recategorized as ‘Endangered’ after more than 20 years of the species being considered ‘Threatened’. This poignant chapter was marked by the IUCN at the World Conservation Congress in September 2021. Research suggests that rising sea levels are a major threat to the dragons who only inhabit islands at low elevations. This is also paired with habitat fragmentation due to agriculture which is in turn affecting the genetic diversity of these already extremely limited populations.

Although the remoteness and limited range of the Komodo dragon make them much more vulnerable than widespread species, it also means conservation efforts can be concentrated on the individual communities that can protect the dragons. “All zoos that manage dragons are working under the same breeding programme” explained Matt.

“Each zoo can manage komodo dragons in their care how they like to an extent, but everyone is working together and collaborating. One of those collaborations is funding so everybody is putting money together per year that goes directly to the Komodo Survival Programme. Having dragons in zoos directly funds the conservation work in Indonesia, which is incredible. It doesn’t work like that with every species, but the money from Komodo dragons is literally supporting the wild populations. Anyone who loves animals should want to see them here long-term and the work that zoos do impact their numbers. Not just their numbers, but their habitats and the people. The people that live on Komodo and Flores don’t have a vast income as it’s not a hugely wealthy country, and, in the past, they have exploited dragons. Their farming is hugely important to their livelihoods, but dragons do eat their livestock, and that’s a massive problem for them. You can’t just tell them to look after the dragons after the equivalent of a burglar has just come in and stolen their livestock. So, the Komodo Survival Programme helps the local people create other ways to build an income. One of them is eco-tourism, another is creating wooden dragons, there’s snorkelling and guides etc. They’re all trying to generate money for these people and if the people that live alongside dragons care about them, that’s going to help protect them. By generating that income, we protect the entire ecosystem in that part of Indonesia.”

Two juvenile Komodo dragons (Varanus komodoensis)