By JASON SOM KAUT
A COMMODO dragon (pictured left) – the world’s largest monitor lizard – has been sighted in the bushes of Butibam village in Lae causing fear among villagers.
The dragon is said to have escaped from captivity at an expatriate’s house located between Eriku and the Morobe Showgrounds.
An expatriate last week drove into the village and offered a K1,000 reward for the dragon to be killed.
The dragon is a native of Indonesia and was reportedly brought into the country as an egg and then hatched.
Villagers yesterday said the expatriate, who did not give
his name, had told them that
the lizard was the larger of the two he had.
The dragon, scientifically known as varanus komodoensis is on the endangered list with only about 5 000 surviving. It has 60 jagged teeth and a flexible skull that allows it to take in large mammals. The expatriate owner had told villagers that it ate his pet dog and escaped.
The Butibum village mothers have stopped going to their gardens in fear of the lizard.
One villager was said to have lost some vanilla vines “as if they were swept over by a tail”.
Over four sightings have been made in Butibam in the past week.
Elderly mother Geob Gware of Butibam was one of the three who saw the lizard.

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“It was sitting near the side of the firewood sunning itself when I saw it,” she said.
“It looked scary because it was so big. I called another relative to come see it before we both ran away. We are not going to the gardens because we are scared it might attack us,” she said.
Another woman also ran away in fear.
She said it was just over a metre long.
The lizard has a lifespan of between 20-40 years. It lives in extremely high, volcanic or lower savannah habitats similar to those in PNG and can survive here.