In September 2019, the park attracted further controversy when tourists complained that their guides were encouraging 'selfies' with Komodo dragons. In July 2019, it was confirmed that the island would be closed as from the beginning of 2020. In April 2019, Indonesian authorities announced a plan to close Komodo Island to tourism for a limited period to allow for conservation efforts amid concerns over animal-smuggling. The sand appears pink because it is a mixture of white sand combined with red sand, formed from pieces of Foraminifera. Komodo contains a beach with " pink" sand, one of only seven in the world. Other animals include water buffalo, banded pigs, civets, cockatoo and macaques. Javan deer also inhabit the island, though they are not native. A type of monitor lizard, it inhabits Komodo Island and some of the smaller surrounding islands, as well as part of western Flores. The Komodo dragon, the world's largest living lizard, takes its name from the island. The island is also a popular destination for diving and it has been included into the controversial New7Wonders of Nature list since November 11, 2011. Komodo is part of the Lesser Sundas deciduous forests ecoregion. The population is primarily adherents of Islam but there are also Christian and Hindu congregations. The present day people of the island are descendants of former convicts who were exiled to Komodo and who have mixed with Bugis from Sulawesi. The native population of Komodo, the Komodo people, has been extinct since the 1980s. Komodo has a human population of over two thousand, spread out over the island and in the main Komodo village. In the decades since the Komodo was discovered, various scientific expeditions from a range of countries have carried out field research on the dragons on Komodo Island. The Komodo dragon became something of a living legend.
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Burden's chapter "The Komodo Dragon", in Look to the Wilderness, describes the expedition, the dragon's habitat and its behavior. Defoisse, and Emmett Reid Dunn collected specimens for the American Museum of Natural History. Realizing the significance of the dragons on Komodo Island as an endangered species, the Dutch government issued a regulation on the protection of the lizards on Komodo Island in 1915. Ouwens named the giant lizard Varanus komodoensis. Ouwens carried out studies on the samples and concluded that the Komodo dragon was not a flame-thrower but was a type of monitor lizard. He recruited hunters who killed two dragons measuring 3.1 metres and 3.35 metres as well as capturing two pups, each measuring less than one metre. Ouwens was keen to obtain additional samples. The records that Ouwens made are the first reliable documentation of details about what is now called the Komodo dragon (or Komodo monitor). Ouwens, the Director of the Zoological Museum and Botanical Gardens in Bogor, Java. More samples were then photographed by Peter A. It was approximately 2.1 metres (6.9 feet) long, with a shape very similar to that of a lizard. Van Hensbroek took the dragon to headquarters where measurements were taken. After a few days, Hensbroek managed to kill one of the lizards to investigate. He armed himself, and accompanied by a team of soldiers, he landed on the island. Hearing the reports, Lieutenant Steyn van Hensbroek, an official of the Dutch Colonial Administration in Flores, planned a trip to Komodo Island to continue the search himself.
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It was believed then that the odd creature could fly.
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![komodo national park a s s s s komodo national park a s s s s](https://www.gettingstamped.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/Komodo-National-Park-2.jpg)
It burnt them and so they could not continue the investigation. The Dutch sailors reported that the creature measured up to seven metres (twenty-three feet) in length with a large body and mouth which constantly breathed fire. The creature was allegedly a dragon which inhabited a small island in the Lesser Sunda Islands (the main island of which is Flores). But no Westerner visited the island to check the story until official interest was sparked in the early 1910s by stories from Dutch sailors based in Flores in East Nusa Tenggara about a mysterious creature. The earliest stories (among Westerners) of a dragon-like animal existing in the region circulated widely and attracted considerable attention. Komodo Island is home to the Komodo Dragon, the largest lizard on earth. The island's surface area covers 390 square kilometres. It lies between the substantially larger neighboring islands Sumbawa to the west and Flores to the east. Komodo is part of the Lesser Sunda chain of islands and forms part of the Komodo National Park.