Three Komodo dragons, the world’s largest lizard species, have returned to New York’s Bronx Zoo for the first time since the 1950’s.

The two female and one male dragons are still teenagers and just over five feet long. Adult males can grow to nine feet from nose to tail and weigh around 163kg. The dragons are native to the eastern Indonesian islands.

The voracious lizards have an insatiable appetite, and can consume up to 80 percent of their body weight in one meal. Their diet consists of large and small mammals, including deer and buffalo and reptiles including smaller Komodo dragons, birds, eggs, and carrion.

Not only do Komodo dragons have razor sharp claws to tear through their prey, but also their saliva contains a toxic mix of bacteria, making their bite a death sentence to inflicted prey. If death is not immediate, the prey will expire within a few days of being bitten.

The Komodo dragon has an acute sense of smell and will stalk their bitten prey over long periods of time and distances as their prey slowly dies.

The three Komodo dragons at the Bronx Zoo are there to participate in an exhibit that opens today entitled, “Amazing Monitors.” The exhibit also features three other monitor species, each found in very different ecosystems. Rock, tree, and water monitors are represented by Mertens’ water monitors, yellow spiny-tailed monitors, and blue tree monitors in exhibits that replicate the habitats in which they are found.