How to Irk a Komodo Dragon

Picture above of a Komodo Dragon at the National Zoo.

Picture does not include a jerk who, thinking it would be fun to see if he could get a rise out of the dragon, ran back and forth in front of the dragon's habitat until said dragon turned his head, thumped his tail, and flared his sides out like he wanted to take a bit out of me...er, uh, take a bite out of the jerk.

Sorry, but I couldn't resist. They are such fantastic creatures, and very few animals have quite the same ability to glare a hole right through you.

Before my exhibition, we were watching the creature next to a family with a toddler. This isn't the first time that I had seen an animal look at a small child as if it were lunch, but it may have been the most obvious. Even the mother took notice and proceeded to tell the ~3 year old, "look at him looking at the juicy young child I'm holding."

The kid promptly followed up the comment with a very concerned, "let's go somewhere else now." I bet the kid had nightmares for a while.