Komodo dragon destroyed BBC camera by trying to have sex with it

A komodo dragon destroyed cameras trying to film for a BBC wildlife show after trying to have sex with one of them.

State-of-the-art equipment was hidden inside both a lifesize imitation of a female komodo dragon and a fake pig placed amid a pack of the giant lizards during filming for new series Spy in the Wild 2, narrated by David Tennant.

According to The Sun newspaper, executive producer John Downer revealed the male dragons began trying to mate with the imitation lizard and became increasingly frustrated when the model did not respond – so they took their frustration out on the fake pig containing the recording equipment.

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He said: “With its massive claws this dragon starts raking at the skin of the ‘female’, and there’s nothing you can do because you can't intervene. You just hope it will realise there’s something not right and it will stop.

"But then this pig, with all our equipment in it, was in the wrong place at the wrong time and they just annihilated it.

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“It was breeding season and they’d been riled up by fighting over this female and testosterone gets the worst of us. They were like dinosaurs, it was just unbelievable, it was totally smashed to pieces.”

Spy in the Wild 2 begins on BBC One on Wednesday, 22 January, and was filmed with cameras hidden inside animatronic animals including koalas, gorillas, bears and turtles.

The new series also features footage of Ugandan mountain gorillas “singing” as they eat together.