Coming to Komodo home

Amber Willard

GRIFFITH PARK -- He didn’t look quite comfortable with his newfound

celebrity. Photographers and television news crews were lined up in front

of him, yet all the man of the hour could do was pace before them.

Occasionally, his tongue slithered out like a snake’s.

Modo, one of the Los Angeles Zoo’s two Komodo dragons, received his

first public visitors Thursday morning in a new exhibit that features

three glass-faced sections of the creatures’ simulated natural habitats.

The Dragons of Komodo enclosure was missing one important element that

morning, though.

Komo, the other giant lizard, was in a secluded recovery area after

fracturing one of his legs while exploring his habitat.

“He managed to climb to one of the top levels, and when he came

flopping down, we think he caught his foot,” Zoo Director Manuel

Mollinedo said.

Komo gained some national fame of his own in June, when he tried to

take a bite out of actress Sharon Stone’s husband, newspaper executive

Phil Bronstein. Stone had arranged the private visit as an early Father’s

Day present for Bronstein, who ended up having surgery on one of his toes

following Komo’s attack.

Komo and Modo, both now 3, came to the zoo after someone tried to

smuggle them into the country when they were only about 16 inches long.

They top out at almost 7 feet apiece today. More than half of the

exhibit’s $450,000 cost was covered by zoo enthusiast Myra Wildhorn, at

the urging of her daughter, Lori.

Admission to the exhibit is included in the cost of zoo tickets.