Komodo Dragon Bite Puts Man in Hospital

Eras Poke

Kupang. A tour guide is receiving emergency care at a Bali hospital
after being mauled by a Komodo dragon on Monday at Komodo National Park
on Rinca Island, East Nusa Tenggara.

Marselinus Sabanhadir was
heading for a toilet at the park when a lizard emerged from behind a
guard post and sank its teeth into his leg.

Tamen Sitorus,
chief of Komodo National Park, said on Tuesday that Marselinus suffered
deep lacerations to his right leg and had been flown to Sanglah
Hospital in Denpasar for emergency medical treatment after the local
clinic was unable to do much more than clean and sew up the wounds.

“Komodo
dragons may look tame, but please be warned, they are fierce animals
and very powerful,” Tamen told the Jakarta Globe. “I urge all visitors
to be vigilant. Komodo dragons are always hungry.”

A visitor
at the park, Valen Blikololong, questioned whether the incident wasn’t
caused in part by officials failing to keep to the feeding time for the
lizards.

“Aside from carelessness [on the part of the victim],
it is possible that the Komodos were simply starving and it was just
their time to feed,” Valen said.

There have been 15 recorded Komodo dragon attacks on humans at the park, resulting in five deaths.

In 2007, a lizard savaged an 8-year-old boy who died of massive blood loss.

Two
lizards killed fisherman Muhamad Anwar in 2009. Anwar was attacked
after he fell out of a tree and was left badly bleeding from bites to
his arms, legs, torso and neck.

He was taken to a clinic on the neighboring island of Flores, where he was pronounced dead on arrival.

Monday’s attack occurred during a global campaign to vote the national park as one of the new Seven Wonders of Nature.