304 
Auffenberg 
Residency confers certain advantages. 
Long residency enables the individuals to 
learn shelter locations (often difficult to find 
for individuals this size), waterholes, sen- 
tinal sites, and the location and activity 
cycles of prey animals. The overlapping core 
areas of adult males and females certainly 
confer reproductive advantages. 
Activity Range 
Tracking studies on Komodo show that 
adults may move as much as 10 km/day, 
although the mean is 1.8 km/day. 
The activity (foraging) range (mean 
area=4.2 km^) extends from 2 to 4 km in 
several directions from this central area, 
over which the resident tends to move fairly 
regularly, but not on a daily basis (Fig. 2). 
Such a large area makes the definition of an 
activity range difficult. 
In most species studied so far the shape 
of the activity range appears determined 
by the distribution of prey (or sites from 
which it can be monitored) and the interre- 
lationship of territorial boundaries estab- 
lished by individuals comprising the popula- 
tion (Fig. 3). Typically, most lizards patrol 
all the principal perches or monitoring sites 
at least once a day. 
The activity range of both transient and 
resident individuals includes a core area. 
Figure 1. Typical diel foraging pattern of 1 m long 
Varanus komodoenais, Nov. 20 (dashes) and Nov. 
23 (dots) in Loho Liang savanna, Komodo. 
with some type of shelter such as a burrow, 
rock pile, or hollow tree. The size of the 
daily activity range reflects the extent of a 
feeding foray (Figs. 1, 2). Its size and shape 
depend upon the type of prey sought, the 
local topography, and the size of the foraging 
individual (see Table 3). 
Scavenging Range 
The scavenging range is superimposed on 
the activity ranges of many resident and 
transient oras. When carrion is available, the 
typical foraging patterns are abandoned and 
resident monitors may leave their regular 
core areas for distances as great as 8 km. 
Along with transients, they may pass 
through foraging ranges and even core areas 
of other oras. Aggregations of monitors at 
carrion are thus composed of individuals 
unfamiliar to one another, having experi- 
enced no encounters in overlapping hunting 
ranges. Since meeting of strangers is the 
rule, there is a high level of social interac- 
tion (see below). When the carrion meal is 
completed, the larger residents return to 
their core areas while transients continue to 
wander. 
TERRITORIAL BEHAVIOR 
It is not known to what extent, if at all, 
Varanus komodoensis is territorial. No ag- 
gressive behavior was seen at the edges or 
within core areas. The distribution of in- 
Table 3. Monitor size forage area (in M^) 
and proportionate forage area. 
Monitor 
Size 
Classes 
(Total 1. 
in m) 
Forage Area 
(in m“) 
Forage Area/ 
Body Area* 
1.1-1.5 
1,863 ± 148 
7,165 
1.6-2.0 
68,900 ± 1330 
109,074 
2.1-2.6 
336,040 ± 8677 
292,209 
2.6-3.0 
1,008,000 ± 3,400 
614,285 
* Total length X greatest width 
