308 
Auffenberg 
Table 5. Major Display categories in Varanus komodoensis. 
Category 
Directed to : 
Sensory 
Type 
Behavioral Display 
Remarks 
I. Intraspecific 
Social: appeasement 
Usually larger 
individuals of 
same species 
Visual 
body: “Schragstellung,” slightly 
flattened laterally, body raised 
with arched vertebral column; 
head: held straight out, down 
or up; held stiff, usually off 
ground; locomotion: slow, stiff, 
deliberate, often parallel to 
or an an angle with percipient 
(see Fig. 6). 
Easily and quickly 
shifted to warning 
display if necessary 
General 
Information 
All individuals 
Olfactory 
Scents associated with droppings 
and other spoor. 
Threat 
Predators and 
assailants 
Visual 
body: “Schragstellung,” body 
sometimes slightly compressed 
laterally, bowed away from 
assailant; head: low, dorsal 
surface sometimes directed to 
assailant — in stronger reaction 
with mouth open, rarely with 
slight foam production ; neck : 
hyoid expanded ; locomotion : 
none; tail: bowed away from 
assailant, ready for sweeping 
tail blow. Tail sometimes 
switched back and forth, or 
vibrated. 
Sometimes difficult 
to distinguish from 
above (graded 
series) 
Auditory 
Hissing 
Sexual: courtship 
Other sex 
Tactile 
Males scratch females on neck 
and back with claws of one 
front foot. 
Olfactory 
“Tonguing” of scales of head 
and body. 
II. Intraspecific 
Passive predator 
deterrent 
Predators 
Chemical 
Emptying cloaca and stomach 
fright reaction is common in many lizards. 
We have observed it many times during 
handling of smaller Komodo monitors. It 
occurs also when monitors are attacked, 
suggesting a protective function. Disgorging 
the gastric contents is also common, particu- 
larly during the first several days following 
a large meal. It occurs most often before an 
impending attack and seems to be either a 
preparation for action or a deterrent against 
attack. 
The loose organization in a feeding group 
of Komodo monitors presupposes that each 
of the members is able to recognize one 
another at least temporarily. 
The importance of scent in sex and species 
identification is clearly related to the highly 
developed olfactory sense of Komodo dra- 
gons. Olfactory sexual differences are ap- 
parently easily recognized. Prior to, and dur- 
ing courtship, adult males touch their 
tongues to the body and head of the prospec- 
tive mate, particularly around the sides of 
the head, between the eye and nostril, and 
at the junctions of the hind leg with the 
body. 
