From Joe Mendelson:
Surveys of the microbiome across most of the Komodo Dragons (Varanus komodoensis) in US zoos indicated that each animal’s internal and external microbiome was largely specific to itself and its enclosure. Komodo Dragons typically are maintained in isolation, as they are solitary animals in the wild, and zoo enclosure-designs and geographic location dictate whether the animals have access to outdoor environments. Dragons with access to outdoors typically had more diverse microbiota. These results indicate that there is not common dragon-specific microbiota across captive individuals and, inasmuch as microbiota diversity can affect overall health of individual animals of many species, the animal-health consequences of reduced diversity of microbiota in isolated, indoor dragons is unknown.
Read the full article here and a press release here.