Walking home, I saw two rifles were leaned up against the wall. Two men were squatting on the cement. Clove cigarettes jangled from their months, as they buzzed excitedly about their catch. I watched them slash a small pen razor, the kind that would fit a hobby knife, at a shape spread on the floor "It's a Komodo," they said proudly hoisting the lizard from its thick, bulging tail. I was ushered into the circle to watch the animal, slowly being rendered into pieces.
The meat was left on the bones, as the skin was pulled away. The animal had already been decapitated quickly looking more like a meal or a belt every minute. They had shot it in the riverbed winding through our neighborhood. It was destined for obat, or the brew of traditional medicines that Indonesians still turn to for most ailments, as well as the sate stick, roasted meat smothered in peanut sauce found at most roadsides.
Although not really a
Komodo dragon, the lizard was another kind of monitor lizard. Wikipedia writer say the lizards "are very intelligent, and some species can even count" (this is footnoted), making excellent pets if you like "reptilian cats" with brains and an independent streak. They are also stronger pound for pound than an alligator, and apparently content to dine on crickets, "superworms," eggs and the occasional rodent.
So the jungle is still in Jakarta. Few places have paved, cleared and driven greenery so thoroughly from a city, but more wildlife passes through my neighborhood most nights than whole weeks on the East Coast. If every human left tomorrow, the city would not be empty.
