How to Count Komodo Dragons

[xchrom]

http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2013/04/how-to-count-komodo-dragons/274581/


Komodo dragon and a critter cam. Note the hanging goat meat. (You could make a mean birria with that chunk.)

f I know one thing about komodo dragons, it is: you cannot ride a komodo dragon, no matter how much you'd like to.

If I know two things about komodo dragons, they are: you cannot ride a komodo dragon and that they are endangered in their native Indonesian-island habitats.

Because of the latter consideration, biologists want to be able to monitor the population of these top-of-the-food-chain predators, who kill with strong jaws and nasty venom. In the past, scientists tended to trap them in long metal cages baited with chunks of goat meat. Then they'd check the traps to get a rough count of how many dragons lived in a given area.

But that's expensive, time-consuming, and at least in some places, the dragons have wised up to the idea that the dragon-sized metal box with goat meat inside is a trap.

***not using me as any kind of volunteer would be my start.

[Scuba]

1. Aerial survey?

[xchrom]

2. way high up. nt

[DetlefK]

5. In a forest? For an animal that has the same color as the soil?

[hatrack]

3. Very, very quickly (but accurately, of course!)

[xchrom]

4. 1 and done. nt