> > > >> Evolutionarily speaking, there is no reason for a scavenger to be >> poisonous, as there food is already dead. >> > >What about for defensive purposes as well as competion for food? Not being >a biologist of any sort, it still seems to me that an animal who can poison >other animals has a powerful defense mechanism, and in addition, being able >to drive off other perhaps larger scavangers would allow the animal to have >a better supply of food. > most of these lizards invoke so much fear in everything around them that nothing preys on them, including humans. komodo dragons appear to be immune to each others bite--so competition is not an issue, and on the island of komodo, there is nothing bigger--they are by the way the largest lizard in the world. jaa