Komodo National Park

Long ago, volcanoes made these islands.

The islands sit where two big pieces of Earth meet. The weather here is dry, so grass grows on the hills instead of thick forest.

All of Komodo's islands were made by volcanoes. UNESCO explains that they lie where two of Earth's plates meet, in an area scientists call a "shatter belt": a zone of broken, rugged land.

The park is also in a special region called Wallacea, which lies between the plants and animals of Asia and those of Australia, so it has a mix of both. Komodo has a dry climate. That dryness has shaped its plants: open grassy savanna with scattered trees, forests that drop their leaves in the dry season, and on the highest hills, a misty kind of forest.

UNESCO describes the islands as being of volcanic origin, at the juncture of two continental plates, forming the "shatter belt" within the Wallacea biogeographical region between the Australian and Sunda ecosystems. That position explains the rugged topography and the mixture of fauna, which UNESCO calls characteristic of the Wallacean zoogeographic region.

The dry climate has driven specific evolutionary adaptations in the plants, which range from open grass-woodland savanna to tropical deciduous (monsoon) forest and quasi cloud forest. Offshore, coral reefs are diverse and luxuriant thanks to clear water, intense sunlight and the rapid exchange of nutrient-rich water from deeper parts of the archipelago.

Many other animals live in the park.

Deer, monkeys and wild pigs live on the islands. Cockatoos fly in the trees. In the sea, there are colorful corals, turtles, dolphins and even big whales.

On land, the dragons share the islands with Timor deer, crab-eating macaques, a rat found nowhere else and 72 kinds of birds, including the lesser sulphur-crested cockatoo and the orange-footed scrubfowl, which builds big mounds of earth for its eggs.

The sea is just as rich. UNESCO says Komodo's coral reefs are diverse and luxuriant, and strong currents bring dolphins, dugongs and sea turtles. Blue whales and sperm whales have been recorded in the park's waters, along with 10 kinds of dolphins and five kinds of sea turtles.

UNESCO records seven species of terrestrial mammal, including the endemic rat Rattus rintjanus and the crab-eating macaque (Macaca fascicularis), plus Timor deer, and 72 bird species such as the lesser sulphur-crested cockatoo (Cacatua sulphurea), orange-footed scrubfowl (Megapodius reinwardt) and noisy friarbird. Smithsonian's National Zoo notes that female dragons may lay their roughly 30 eggs in the mounds of megapodes like the scrubfowl.

Marine fauna is broadly Indo-Pacific but unusually species-rich. Notable mammals include the blue whale and sperm whale, 10 species of dolphin and the dugong, along with five sea turtle species. UNESCO names illegal fishing and poaching as the main threats, the latter including poaching of the deer and other prey on which the dragons depend; Smithsonian notes that dragons have not been seen on Padar since the 1970s, a result of widespread deer poaching.

People have protected Komodo dragons for a long time.

The islands became a national park in 1980. Rangers watch over the dragons and the sea.

People have worked to protect Komodo dragons for more than a hundred years. The Smithsonian says the Dutch colonial government made protection plans as early as 1915. UNESCO says the area's protection goes back to 1938, and in 1980 Indonesia made it a national park.

In 1984 the park was enlarged to include more sea and part of the island of Flores, and in 1991 UNESCO named it a World Heritage Site. Rangers patrol the land and sea to stop illegal fishing and poaching. The Smithsonian says dragons disappeared from the island of Padar after widespread poaching of deer, their main prey, so protecting the deer helps protect the dragons.

Protection plans date from 1915 under the Dutch colonial government (Smithsonian), and UNESCO traces the site's protection to 1938. A Ministerial Decree created a 72,000 ha national park in March 1980, extended to 219,322 ha in 1984 to take in a larger marine area and part of mainland Flores; the Komodo Biosphere Reserve was accepted under UNESCO's Man and the Biosphere Programme in January 1977, and a 1990 national law strengthened the legal basis.

The park is managed by Indonesia's central government. UNESCO identifies increasing tourism and depletion of the dragons' prey as major management issues and notes that regular marine and land patrols have reduced some illegal fishing and poaching. A marine buffer zone lets managers regulate fishing and helps control the poaching of the deer and other prey species.

Visitors walk on the islands with a park ranger.

The ranger knows where the dragons are. Stay with the group and look from far away. Never walk off alone.

Visitors reach Rinca by boat from the town of Labuan Bajo. There, Indonesia's official tourism website says, every trek is led by a ranger who knows the trails and the animals, and walks last from about one to three hours.

Komodo dragons are wild predators, so stay with your ranger and group, keep well back from the animals and never try to feed or touch them. At sea, protect the reefs by not touching or standing on coral, and follow the park's rules on fishing.

Indonesia's official tourism website describes treks on Rinca of about one to three hours on several routes, each guided by a ranger, after arrival by ferry from Labuan Bajo at Loh Buaya. Komodo dragons are large wild predators, so visitors should remain with rangers, keep a wide distance and never feed animals.

UNESCO notes that rising visitor numbers and the impacts of tourism are among the park's main management issues and that the Indonesian government runs an ecotourism program to keep tourism sustainable. Visitors help by choosing licensed operators, keeping off the coral and supporting the patrols and community programs that protect the islands.