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The Komodo dragon has earned its status as a reptilian icon.

The carnivorous lizard can grow up to 10 feet long and is equipped with a forked tongue, serrated teeth, armored scales and venomous saliva. Dragons can detect meat from miles away as they hunt an impressive array of prey such as deer, wild boar, horse, buffalo and each other. Females have even been known to eat their own offspring.

“It has a terrible reputation,” said Craig Hilton-Taylor, a biologist with the International Union for Conservation of Nature. “It’s like seeing your storybooks come to life.”

But now, the world’s largest living lizard has moved one step closer to erasure in the wild.

Komodo dragons, previously considered a “vulnerable” species, were reclassified as “endangered” by the conservation organization last weekend.

“There has been a real change in the situation, a deterioration,” said Mr Hilton-Taylor, head of the international group’s Red List unit, which assesses and counts the conservation risk of 138,000 species. “It’s headed for extinction.”

The new label aims to encourage international policy makers and conservation groups to strengthen and expand their protections in the giant lizard’s natural habitat. This may be necessary amongst a population of dragons living in particularly dangerous areas. not protected and more vulnerable to activities such as illegal hunting and habitat clearing.

“It’s ringing the alarm bells louder,” said Andrew Terry, director of conservation at the Zoological Society of London. “It increases the urgency to act.”

Komodo dragons are native to Indonesia and are found in the country’s Komodo National Park, a UNESCO world heritage site that includes its namesake island and a number of other islands. A less well-understood population of the species also lives on a larger, neighboring island, Flores.

While experts consider the national park’s Komodo dragon population to be stable and well preserved, the species still faces increasing barriers to its long-term survival. Komodo dragons are particularly vulnerable to environmental changes, as they live in a limited belt of land between the coasts of the islands and the steep forested hills.

“They’re pretty tight in terms of where they can live,” said Gerardo Garcia, a conservation biologist at Chester Zoo in England, who has spent almost a decade working with efforts to conserve the Komodo dragon in Indonesia.

The International Union for Conservation of Nature warns that suitable Komodo dragon habitat is expected to shrink by at least 30 percent over the next 45 years. Factors causing this habitat loss include rising temperatures and sea levels associated with climate change. But outside of the dragon park safe haven, urbanization and agricultural cleanup are also factors. In Flores, residents also compete with dragons for deer and wild boar, and view carnivorous lizards as a threat to cattle, goats and other livestock.

Dr. “These animals are being persecuted,” Garcia said. Despite their global charisma, “they don’t have a magic shield,” he said.

Their rankings have already suffered a huge drop. About 25 years ago, somewhere 5,000 to 8,000 Komodo dragons roamed the Earth. Today at IUCN predictions Only 1,380 adult Komodo dragons and 2,000 more cubs remain in the wild. “The main concern is what will happen in the future,” said Mr. Hilton-Taylor.

Other reptile species, many of which are isolated on the islands, are vulnerable to the same threats. Dr. “This is a flagship for the state of reptiles worldwide,” Terry said.

If Komodo dragons leave a critically endangered situation behind, they can become known as “extinct in the wild” and can only survive in captivity. “I think that would be a terrible indictment,” he said. “No one working at a zoo would be happy to see a species only exist in a zoo.”

Garcia likened the recent reclassification to entering the emergency room. “If we don’t react quickly, we will have very few animals,” he said. “It means you’re going to intensive care.”

At this point, the only hope for Komodo dragons will be a precarious one: a captive breeding program and attempts to transplant into limited and fragmented wildlife areas. But experts say it hasn’t gotten to that point yet.

“This is the last chance,” said Dr. garcia “We still have some time.”