In late 1926 William Douglas Burden, an American explorer, returned from South-East Asia with two of the rarest animals in the world. They were Komodo dragons, and their presence in the Bronx Zoo created a sensation throughout New York City, meriting coverage in the leading newspapers of the day. However, the stir they created only lasted a few months. The two animals died – one in October, the other in November of that year – as the zoological park did not have the proper facilities to house large reptiles in a climate that was transitioning from autumn into winter. The two lizards were quickly presented to the American Museum of Natural History, where they were stuffed and put on display in a glass case that created a facsimile of their original environment (Barnard 2011: 2, 97–8). Visitors could now view them up close, and can still do so today: static reminders of an earlier era. Alongside the display the museum ran never-released film footage taken on the expedition that led to the capture of the dragons to provide a vivid depiction of their original environment. The film provided a more active viewing experience, taking the viewer into the exotic world of South-East Asian fauna.

The footage is twelve minutes in length and focuses on Burden and his wife Katherine and their time on the remote Indonesian island of Komodo. Following a series of establishing shots – of the museum, the Komodo display, a variety of animals on the actual island and the construction of the expedition camp – in the first five minutes of the film, three scenes make up the rest of the footage. The first depicts the shooting of a water buffalo, which will serve as food for the camp as well as bait for lizards. The second extended scene features a series of quick clips that begins with Katherine shooting a Komodo dragon that was feasting on the water buffalo carcass. This quickly transitions into the construction of a trap, the shooting and placement of a deer in the trap, and then the capture of a lizard lured into it. The final scene focuses on two dragons ripping and tearing apart the carcass of an animal.