Komodo Dragon

1 year

Without the Komodo dragon, the only large land predator on its islands, Timor deer and wild boar would instantly lose their one ground-level threat: nothing would push them to stay alert near waterholes and trails the dragons normally hunt along.

Hypothesis

10 years

Over a decade, deer and boar left unchecked would likely multiply on these already small islands, browsing more heavily on the low vegetation of the dry monsoon forest that covers Komodo and Rinca — pressure no other large predator would step in to offset.

Hypothesis

100 years

Over a century, this relentless grazing pressure would likely go on to reshape the dry forest's composition itself on the dragon's small islands: fewer palatable young trees would survive to maturity, and species that deer and boar avoid eating would take up growing ground.

Hypothesis

1000 years

Over a thousand years, no other large land predator would settle on such isolated islands to take over that role: deer and boar would remain effectively without a large predator indefinitely, and the dry forests of Komodo and Rinca would keep a different character than the one the dragon had shaped — denser undergrowth, fewer young trees of the species it had indirectly protected by keeping herbivores in check.

Hypothesis