Gross out? (You can do it: activities & oddities).

KOMODO DRAGONS, like Doni, will eat just about anything--even teddy bears. Veterinarian Jim Rasmussen of the Minnesota Zoo yanked one out of Doni's stomach last February. An X-ray showed the stuffed animal--accidentally dropped into Doni's exhibit--lodged inside the endangered reptile's stomach, where it stewed for six days. "Behaviorally, Doni was acting very normally," says Rasmussen. "He was even defecating." But had the toy lodged farther down the gastrointestinal tract, a long tube used to transport and digest food, it might have killed him.

Removing the toy was tricky. The Komodo dragon is a voracious carnivore (meat eater). In its native island habitats in Indonesia, it uses 60 knifelike teeth to prey on goats, boars, other lizards, hefty water buffalo, and even the occasional human.

To sedate the dragon, Rasmussen placed Doni under anesthesia. Then with the aid of an endoscope, a flexible viewing tool used to see internal body cavities and organs, he tried to pull the toy out the back end. "It was stuck," says the doctor. "And we were concerned about tearing his stomach." Plan B: Rasmussen slid his hand down Doni's throat. Luckily, the reptile's mouth was propped open with a heavy--duty pipe!