What are some monsters that have been known to eat dragons?

Really fucking huge crocodiles.

Depends on what dragons are like in your setting.

Ideally, imho, a diet of cunning, intelligent and powerful creatures who are recluses, travel great distances to settle in a lair and are fiercely territorial is not practical at all. It would have to be some sort of great and horrific worm-like beast that burrows through the ground and hunts after large sources of magic of any kind.

It would most likely be unique, spawned from some folly of the gods, and just as dangerous to colleges of magic as dragons.

In such a setting, dragons would most likely relocate their lairs to the tops of mountains as a result with easy escape routes so that they can fly away. Maybe the most powerful dragons and wizards invest in airships or enchant floating islands to evade it.

That is how I'd make a beast that preys on dragons.

Jesus mother of God tell me that is fake

I'm having trouble coming up with anything there.

In stories I can think of, the dragon is most often the antagonist that needs to be defeated by the hero, sometimes a guardian of an artifact that needs to be obtained which can be done by trickery, occasionally someone the hero must travel to in order to gain the knowledge needed to defeat their antagonist, seldom an ally fighting alongside the hero.

I can think of some beings that are powerful enough to hunt and eat dragons, but I don't think I can think of a story or setting where that's a regular occurrence. I'd be really interested if someone could deliver an example.

Dragon parasites, properly hardened fleas, ticks, and mites that are fucking monsters on their own but on dragons are a mild irritant that feed on them as they sleep.

Technically that fits the bill. Good reason to have kobolds that eat the fleas and ticks off you.

Probably, but Gustave is REALLY real.

en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gustave_(crocodile)?wprov=sfla1

I know why the dragon attacked the town this morning.
Remember that farm girl we chained to the post outside the dragons lair last month? Well she escaped and told me the damn beast didn't eat but instead made her pick fleas and ticks out from under its scales all day. There's other girls there too the ones we "sacrificed" last year. Wanna go save them, they're still virgins.

Actually, Jesus was the son of God and Mary. Since Jesus was also God, the expression is "Mary, mother of God". Sometimes "Sweet Mary [...]"

And it's probably a real photo, but you can be sure they've made sure to make the crocodile seem as big as possible. Might be kneeling a little further behind it than strictly neessary and leaning forwards.

>I fucked my own mother to create me for the purpose of sacrificing myself to myself to save you from my wrath

>What are some monsters that have been known to hunt & eat dragons?

Larger Dragons, prides of Griffons, Giants, Ettins, & Cyclopes... Perhaps even flocks of Wyverns, though they might just bully them more than eat them?

Keep in mind that most of these monsters would just be getting away with killing juveniles and adolescent Dragons- I don't really anything to consistently go after adult Dragons.

The Gronn from World of Warcraft also made sport of hunting and killing the Dragons that would fly into their territory- skewering their bodies on the naturally spiky formations of the nearby canyons n' valleys where they reside.

Uh-oh you're gonna get quoted with fedora pictures.

In shadow run Horrors are known to prey on dragons.
There is one Horror whose name literally translates too "Hunts for dragons as a fox hunts for mice"

...

the most dangerous monsters of all

pretty sure a shoggoth could eat a dragon, yeah? although i guess that depends on the setting, whether shoggoths need to feed or not, etc

Giants - presumably - eat Dragons in D&D (in both senses of the word: They're one of the few viable options in 5E for Half-Dragons despite everything), seeing as how they will hunt them and otherwise make trophies of their body (and it'd be a waste of literal tonnes of good meat to just toss it). Likewise, while they would rarely interact outside a handful of draconic subspecies, Kraken are generally more than capable of hunting down and eating careless dragons (all the way up to Ancient Wyrms) without much trouble, but this again is D&D specific and later editions at that.

Genies might hunt and eat Dragons, but it'd depend on the setting.

The Oomukade, a deathly toxic centipede large enough to hunt and devour dragons.

Pride

In D&D you've got the Sirrush.
In M:tG you've got spiders. Big spiders.
In anime you have Lina Inverse.

I say dinousaurs, behemoth, leviathan and that artificial demon that needs blood and metal to survive and getting bigger. And I suppose the dragon's treasure is a good reason to find more and more dragons .

Slimes, I imagine.
If a dragon gets to napping, and doesn't immediately wake up when that black pudding first bumps its tail, then by the time it does, it may be too engulfed to escape.

Well, crocodiles never stop growing, assuming they find enough food (I imagine there is a limit at which point they can no longer cycle oxygen effectively), and if my memory serves (correct me if I'm wrong), crocodilians, similar to lobsters, have something with their dna enzymes (DNA Polymerase, if I remember right) that basically means they have no upper limit on lifespan due to the gradual degradation of DNA over the years. In practice, accumulation of heavy metals, radiation, and other pollutants would eventually kill them, but that could take centuries.
Presumably, a really, really lucky croc could live 4-500 years, and be growing the whole time.

>Well, crocodiles never stop growing, assuming they find enough food (I imagine there is a limit at which point they can no longer cycle oxygen effectively),

Typically even if everything goes right a Crocodile/Alligator will die from physical complications if they get too large. Crocodiles/Alligators that grow massive into their first century will even begin to show serious wear and tear on their joints followed with arthritis- they simply become too heavy for their fat little legs to carry them... This is, though, why Salt Water Crocodiles are always the biggest: salt water is more buoyant and better carries their weight, so it's easier on the joints allowing them a little more mileage.

Lobsters though will just collapse into themselves from their own weight if they get to that stage, they'll just fucking "DNK" and contort like an air tank. Which is funny because Lobsters 'are' actually immortal, it's just that they're physically not capable of cashing in that cheque their genetics write for them.
Which seems kind of a sloppy design, but then again all animals are kind of shoddily put together otherwise none of them would die.

...

Didn't think about the strain on their legs/bodies. I feel dumb for not immediately realizing how much of a limiter that is.

I feel like we need to engineer a truly immortal super-lobster. Name it The Beast for giggles. Shoot it out into space and regret our decision in a few millennia.

There's also the issue of teeth, really old crocodiles tend to be nearly toothless.

Shellfish parasites that latch on and replace scales. Since they adequately function as protection and are even harder to dislodge than normal scales, it is very rare for a dragon to remove them.

Burrowing worms that are specialized at piercing the tough feet of dragons. Sensitive to heavy metals, a dragon is diligent in acquiring and burying parts of their hoard into the soil as protection.

Dragons are skilled at burning down flying insects, but dragonslayer locusts will fight to the very last to consume their prey. The toxic smog they release as they die weakens the nearby dragon until it is unable to unlease a continuous stream of flame.

Griffons hunt down baby dragons for sport, to mark territory, and as trophies for mating rituals.

A smart megalodon will tear off a wing and take its time devouring the drowning dragon.

Golden Dart Snakes have a strong enough poison and a large enough mouth to take down medium-sized dragons.

But only the mountain dwelling races can claim to truly hunt large dragons, impaling wing and leg alike on craggy spikes.

>no mention of the medieval Ichneumon
>no mention of the Hydrus

I thought this place was supposed to know a thing or two about mythology? Seems it's nothing but D&D cucks.

Couple of corrections:

>crocodiles are not biologically immortal and do have natural life spans
>telomeres are the reason some creatures have biological immortality

Other dragons.

Among chink folklore the Taotie, the alldewouring beast that looks like a mix of a huge dog and goat.

bigass spiders

Telomeres. That was the word I was looking for.

this. I made an entire campaign about a dragon brood that hires the PCs to save their nest from an invading species of giant spider.

It led to dragons being mounts and all sorts of breath weapon shenanigans

Dragons are giant reptiles (not loliwhatevers, or fucking abstract concepts in physical form, or any other bullshit). What preys on the biggest reptiles? Big cats. Lions often eat crocodiles, and leopards frequently eat alligators. Even on a small scale, meerkats and mongooses can take on snakes.They manage it because they're quick, they ambush, and they attack from behind.

Which is why is the best answer. That, or hippos. They can wreck a crocodile's shit.

in good old medieval mythology, the elephant was considered the natural ennemy of dragons

Demons

The other way around. The dragon was considered to be the only animal that could kill an elephant, although it usually attacked their young, rather than fully grown elephants. The true natural enemy of the dragon was the panther. All other animals love the smell of the panther's breath, but the dragon can't stand it and will flee and hide whenever a panther is present.

The dragon of medieval bestiaries has quite little to do with the modern, or even later medieval, concept of dragons, though. It was described as pretty much a big flying constrictor snake. It was explicitly not venomous, instead killing its prey by crushing it with its tail.
And medieval panther is some rainbow-coloured maybe catlike mammal with sweet-smelling breath.

If Pokemon is to be believed, fairies.

Underrated.