Komodo Dragon Report Likely A Hoax, Govt Reports
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The Department of Environment and Conservation (DEC) sent a specialist team to Lae, PNG’s second largest city, to investigate reported sightings of the reptile following reports by the PNG media.
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However, the investigators returned to
“Information gathered reveals no factual evidence to support stories aroused by the media. Search parties undertaken by Morobe provincial disaster office and Defense Force personnel and Butibam villagers showed no sightings, traces of tracks during the four-day search which covered an area of four square kilometers,” they said in their report.
Even animals sighted by two informants from Butibam village did not resemble the Komodo dragon, they added.
They said it was possible the reptiles sighted could be endemic to the local area and were sighted because they were disturbed by increasing human activity.
DEC secretary, Dr. Wari Iamo, said in a statement that his officers Veari Kula and Paulus Kulmoi collaborated with colleagues from the National Agriculture Quarantine Inspection Authority (NAQIA) during the course of the investigations.
The joint DEC-NAQIA team concluded there was no factual information to support the reports of sightings.
The investigators also inspected the property of a Lae-based expatriate, whom media reports suggest could have kept the reptiles as pets, but found nothing.
“The property searches carried out on a suspected expatriate in Eriku (in Lae) also showed no evidence of such animals being kept at his premises. This then clearly means that the story was false and just merely a hoax by certain individuals anticipating to gain attention from government officials and other sources,” they said.
Dr. Iamo also lashed out at the media for not consulting the appropriate agencies before publishing the story.
“For example, the use of a komodo dragon from the Internet (in the newspapers) brought reality too much of the allegations, causing much panic and fear amongst the public in Lae,” he said.
