Park Rangers Around the World Face Challenges

Park Rangers around the world face different challenges. Here is one incident that occurred in Indonesia.


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Colleagues save Indonesian park ranger from Komodo dragon attack Marcelinus Subanghadir suffers cuts after reptile grabs him by right foot on Komodo island
Park Rangers around the world face different challenges. Here is one that occured in Indonesia.

A Komodo dragon attacked the park ranger on Komodo island, Indonesia. Photograph: Theo Allofs/Corbis

An Indonesian park ranger escaped an attack by a Komodo dragon – the world's largest lizard – when colleagues heard his cries for help and drove the creature away.

Marcelinus Subanghadir was outside his hut on Komodo island yesterday when the two metre-long (7ft) reptile grabbed his right foot, the Komodo National Park chief, Tamen Sitorus, said.

The dragon clamped Subanghadir's foot in its shark-like teeth until fellow rangers heard his screams and drove it away using wooden clubs.

Subanghadir, 34, suffered deep cuts and was recovering at a hospital on nearby Bali.

Komodo dragons are found in the wild only on the eastern Indonesian islands of Komodo, Padar and Rinca. The lizards, thought to number fewer than 4,000, can grow longer than three metres and weigh up to 70kg (154lb).

An eight-year-old boy was killed by one of the lizards on Komodo island in 2007.

• This article was amended on 23 February 2010. In the original, 70kg was said to equal 31lb. This has been corrected.