This island in Indonesia has great scuba diving, but that fact is usually overshadowed by its main attraction: the Komodo dragon. This reptile, technically a monitor lizard, is the largest in the world and can grow up to 150 pounds and 10 feet long. The dragon is protected within the Komodo National Park, which was named a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1991. However, the dragon population is limited to five small islands and only around 3,000 are left in the wild. Poaching and encroaching human activity have put the species on the “vulnerable” to extinction list by the United Nations’ International Union for the Conservation of Nature.
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