“Did you guys see the new Game of Thrones?” says Hutchinson, breaking it. “I liked it, but not enough dragons yet for me.”

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The Komodo dragon is the world’s largest lizard—a giant monitor that can reach up to 3 metres from nose to tail and weigh up to 70 kilograms. Its broad-snouted face can seem, in the words of the science writer David Quammen, “as gentle and dim as a basset hound’s,” but its rugged skin, sprawling gait, and curved claws hint at the violence it is capable of. This is a predator that looks like it could take down a fully grown buffalo—and it absolutely can.

For decades, scientists believed that the dragon kills using toxic bacteria, which grow upon the strands of meat that get trapped in its teeth. When it bites a victim, the microbes flood into the wounds and cause fatal blood poisoning. But in 2009, Bryan Fry from the University of Queensland proposed the still-controversial idea that the dragon actually kills with venom. The idea is that sizeable glands in its head produce toxins that lower blood pressure, cause hemorrhaging, and prevent clotting. These symptoms are exacerbated by the dragon’s tendency to inflict huge, gaping wounds using its powerful neck and serrated teeth. Thanks to the bite, its prey bleeds heavily. Thanks to the venom, it doesn’t stop.

Komodo dragons hunt their prey on a few small Indonesian islands, including the one that gave them their name. And though formidable as individuals, they are vulnerable as a species. Fewer than 5,000 survive in the wild and their population seems to be declining, due to the usual trifecta of habitat loss, conflict with humans, and changing climate. In attempts to bolster its numbers, zoos around the world breed this magnificent creature. London Zoo has been doing so since 1927. (You may have spotted one of its current males, Raja, in the latest Bond film, Skyfall.)

Last December, the zoo’s keepers found Rinca, another male dragon named after one of the islands where they live, collapsed in his enclosure. He had been perfectly healthy until then, but he was clearly in a bad way and having trouble breathing. They spent all night trying to revive him, but it was too late. The zoo sent Rinca’s body to the Royal Veterinary College to find out why he died, so they can better care for their other animals.

The veterinarian Alex Stoll wheels him into their laboratory and, with some effort, lugs him onto a medical scanner: He still weighs a hefty 45 kilograms even though his brain, eyes, and internal organs have already been removed. “Genitalia are still there; we’ll check those out later,” Hutchinson promises. “The main thing is: Don’t touch the head. There’s danger from venom and bacteria and the teeth are very, very sharp.”

He pauses.

“Even away from the head, don’t touch it without gloves on. There’s Salmonella and other stuff.” (In 1996, a Komodo dragon in Denver zoo caused a Salmonella outbreak that affected more than 300 children.)