A rare video captures the scene of a Komodo dragon hunting by jumping and balancing on two legs to capture an unfortunate bat sitting on a tree.
In the video, the Komodo dragon can be seen sniffing the bat clinging to a tree trunk. This short-nosed fruit bat (Cynopterus titthaecheilus), is a species of animal endemic to Indonesia.
When noticing that the enemy was trying to climb up to grab him, the bat also moved to a higher branch to “take refuge”.
Few people think that the Komodo dragon with its heavy body and short legs can be dangerous to animals living in the trees. However, the dragon showed himself to be a superior hunter, repeatedly using his strength to press heavily on the tree trunk, in order to make the bat lose balance and fall.
When this strategy fails, the Komodo dragon lifts its front legs, and tries to jump with its hind legs. After many failures, it finally succeeded when using its sharp teeth to capture prey at a height of about 2 meters.
The poor bat was quickly crushed in the mouth of the predator. In about half a minute, the Komodo dragon, with its sharp crocodile-like teeth, swallowed its lunch.
Thus it had a hearty and filling meal.