Oldest captive Komodo dragon dies at age 30

CALGARY The oldest Komodo dragon in captivity has died, the Calgary Zoo announced Tuesday.

On its Facebook page, the zoo said the 30-year-old dragon, named Loka, had been under veterinary care as a “geriatric animal” since it arrived from the Toronto Zoo in 2014 before it died on Monday.

“Losing any animal is losing part of the family, so there’s a grieving process with the keepers, but she was at an age where it didn’t come as a surprise to anybody,” said Matt Korhonen, curator of the zoo’s Eurasia section.

“The second oldest dragon is only 22, so she wasn’t just a little bit older, she was quite a bit older.”

Korhonen said the lizard’s appetite declined in the past 10 days because of complications with her colon, which led to its eventual death.

The life expectancy for Komodo dragons is between 25 and 30 years.

Komodo dragons, native to a small group of Indonesian islands, are considered the largest lizards in the world, with mature males growing up to 3.5 metres in length. Korhonen said Loka was about the size of a golden retriever, albeit with shorter legs.

“The problems associated with geriatric animals are not that dissimilar to those associated with geriatric humans,” said Korhonen.

“She was on medication for arthritis, and we were trying to keep her activity levels up and were managing her diet to make sure she was in tip-top shape.”

After 10 days of diagnostic testing, Korhonen said they were only able to confirm that Loka died of complications with her colon, noting that she was too old to undergo surgery.

There are between 3,000 and 5,000 Komodos left in the wild and they are only found on a handful of Indonesian islands. They’re listed as vulnerable on the International Union for the Conservation of Nature’s Red List of endangered species.