Template:Friend of the Week

The Komodo Dragon is a species of monitor lizard found on several islands in Indonesia, though most notably on the island of Komodo that they take their name from. It is the largest living species of lizard alive, able to grow up to 10 feet in length and 150 pounds in weight. Their bodies are covered in bones called osteoderms that act as a natural armor, in addition to the durability and roughness of their skin. As adults, Komodo Dragons tend towards a stone-like color, but newborns tend to have patches of brighter color that can include yellow or orange. The dragon uses its tongue to sense the world around it, using it to smell and taste by sticking it out to collect information, then touching it to the entrance of their Jacobson's organ when it retracts. Depending on the wind, using this method, a Komodo Dragon is able to collect carrion up to six miles away.

Komodo Dragons are able to reproduce both through regular sexual reproduction and asexually, through the use of a cloning process called parthenogenesis. This is possible even if the mother has never made contact with a male dragon in her lifetime. A mother will give birth to an average of 20 eggs, which incubate for around 8 months. To protect these eggs, a mother will often hide them in the mounds made by an orange-footed scrubfowl, a kind of bird, and camouflage it with leaves. Once born, an infant Komodo Dragon will live an arboreal lifestyle for the first few years of its life to protect it from not just predators, but also other dragons, as the Komodo Dragon is a cannibalistic species known to eat their young. As they mature, they descend from the trees and live on the ground floor as carrion feeders, though they are known to kill live prey as well.

Despite their preference for scavenging, Komodo Dragons are considered the apex predator in their ecosystem, having several adaptations that increase their potency. A Komodo Dragon prefers to hunt from stealth, waiting for hours for prey to cross by their path. Despite this, they are fast - able to briefly sprint at a speed of nearly 13 miles per hour. A dragon has extremely sharp serrated teeth like a shark's, which they use to maul their prey to death. However, if a prey animal escapes, their fate is often already sealed. The Komodo Dragon's mouth produces a potent venom that disrupts blood clotting, causing blood to flow at an increased rate and leading to a quick death by blood loss. The prey of a Komodo Dragon, even upon escape from the deadly first attack, has a 90% chance of dying to the effects of this venom within hours. In the past, it was believed that this deadly bite was owed to the dental health of the animal, positing that Komodo Dragons cultivated deadly bacteria in their mouth using rotting flesh from previous meals, but in reality, the animal is known to have a clean mouth, spending time to clean their teeth after each meal.

In Kemono Friends, Komodo Dragon is one of the founding members of Team I'll Bite You in the original Nexon game, alongside Boomslang and Tsuchinoko, and has an obsessive crush on the protagonist. Her personality is comparable to a yandere, initially appearing sweet but revealing her obsessive side quickly. However, in Kemono Friends Pavilion, her personality is much more academic, with her spending large amounts of time studying and researching toxins, especially in plants such as mushrooms. While her character biography in Pavilion is similar to the Nexon game, mentioning devotion, it is possible that this side of her is not shown because the player is absent, thus she has no one to show an obsession for. This is reflected in how a maniacal laugh in her original Nexon introduction has been changed to a giggle.