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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.