Page "Komodo dragon" Paragraph 18

Komodo dragons eat by tearing large chunks of flesh and swallowing them whole while holding the carcass down with their forelegs.

For smaller prey up to the size of a goat, their loosely articulated jaws, flexible skull, and expandable stomach allow it to swallow its prey whole.

The vegetable contents of the stomach and intestines are typically avoided.

Copious amounts of red saliva that the Komodo dragons produce help to lubricate the food, but swallowing is still a long process ( 15 – 20 minutes to swallow a goat ).

A Komodo dragon may attempt to speed up the process by ramming the carcass against a tree to force it down its throat, sometimes ramming so forcefully that the tree is knocked down.

To prevent itself from suffocating while swallowing, it breathes using a small tube under the tongue that connects to the lungs.

After eating up to 80 percent of its body weight in one meal, it drags itself to a sunny location to speed digestion, as the food could rot and poison the dragon if left undigested for too long.

Because of their slow metabolism, large dragons can survive on as little as 12 meals a year.

After digestion, the Komodo dragon regurgitates a mass of horns, hair, and teeth known as the gastric pellet, which is covered in malodorous mucus.

After regurgitating the gastric pellet, it rubs its face in the dirt or on bushes to get rid of the mucus, suggesting that it, like humans, does not relish the scent of its own excretions.