with razor-sharp teeth.

And a bite with bacteria-laced venom

that's seeping into your flesh.

Well, this is no legend.

It’s a Komodo dragon.

Komodo dragons,

also known as Komodo monitors,

are the largest lizards in the world.

As adults,

they have an almost-uniform stone color

and can weigh around 70 kg (154 lb).

The largest Komodo dragon

ever found weighed 166 kg (366 lb)

and was more than 3 m (10 ft) long.

They are powerful, voracious eaters

with a taste for all kinds of meat.

From small rodents

up to a large water buffalo.

Their wide jaws and strong throat muscles

allow them to devour huge chunks rapidly.

And they can eat up to 80%

of their own body weight in one meal.

Sadly, they are an endangered species,

with only 1,380 adult Komodo dragons

left in the wild.

They can be found

in the Lesser Sunda islands of Indonesia.

Most fitting, the island of Komodo.

Here they live on beaches, ridgetops

and even tropical savanna forests.

Just waiting for the perfect chance

to attack you.

Arriving on the island of Komodo,

you’d be excited and looking forward

to some peaceful vacation time.

But as you walk around

the tropical forests,

you’d be blissfully unaware

that Komodo dragons

could already be stalking you.

Their hunting strategy

is all about stealth and power.

It comes down to their sense of smell

when they are on the prowl for food.

And they can pick up the trail

of rotting flesh

from up to 4 km (2.5 mi) away.

For the Komodo,

it's not about taking a whiff of air

with their nose.

Instead, their peculiar method involves

sticking out their long

forked tongue to sample the air.

Then they roll it back in, touching it

to the roof of their mouth.

Here, the tongue rubs against

a sensory organ that can detect different

these molecules.

A Komodo can then use these molecules

as a guide for what

direction to head toward.

Or it can stay perfectly still

for hours, just waiting for their prey.

In this case, it’s you.

Luckily, you’d spot

the yellow-tongued lizard

before it attacks.

Now would be a good time to run.

But with a Komodo's

running speed clocking

in at up to 20 km/h (13 mph),

you wouldn’t get very far.

The dragon would bite down

hard on your ankle.

The pain would be immense,

but you’d fight back.

You’d punch its neck, trying to force it

to let go of you.

But no luck.

Maybe you’d better try prying open

its massive jaws

with your own bare hands.

You’d struggle and struggle,

but it would work.

Although, it would come at a cost.

Your hands would get sliced

by the large,

serrated teeth of the dragon.

Now you’d be bleeding profusely

from the leg and hands.

Time to get away and find help

before the giant lizard

has you for lunch.

But a worse fate may now lay before you.

All over the Komodo dragon's

jagged teeth,

there are bits of meat from its last meal.

Those bits make the perfect

breeding ground

for dangerous strains of bacteria.

And that bacteria

would now be infecting your body.

From your bite wounds,

you could be exposed

to 50 different varieties of bacteria.

Some of these are highly septic,

potentially leading to severe infection.

But the worst still wouldn’t be over.

You would now have venom coursing

through your body too.

This would lower your blood pressure

and prevent your blood from clotting.

You could only have a few minutes left

before you bleed out.

Even if you slow the bleeding,

this would be a terrible way to go.

You could start to get the chills

and a fever.

Your whole body would be in pain.

Eventually, your heart

and circulatory system

would begin to fail entirely.

Blood would no longer flow

to any of your organs,

causing them to fail.

It's likely you wouldn't have the time

to make it somewhere safe.

And the Komodo dragon's

hunt for you would resume.

Remember how they can smell

rotting meat from kilometers away?

Well, your injuries would now attract

every Komodo dragon around you.

And while no Komodo dragon

could swallow you whole on its own,

a group of them

would devour every scrap of your body.

That’s right.

They’d eat your bones

and your intestines,

possibly even swinging them around a bit

to remove all the undigested contents.

What a delicious meal.

As scary and horrible as

this would all be,

you could rest a bit easier

knowing that it's extremely rare.

It happens, sure.

But prior to a deadly Komodo dragon

attack on a young child in 2007,

there hadn't been a single fatal incident

on Komodo Island in 33 years.

Maybe you should be more scared

of another giant predator attacking you.

Like a crocodile.

But that's a story for another WHAT IF.