Tracking Indonesia's Komodo Dragons 4K | 1,000 Days For The Planet | Real Wild

[Music] um [Music] [Applause] we're heading for komodo island in indonesia komodo is an island of mystery almost mythical because of its famous residents the komodo dragons the largest lizard on the planet they can grow three meters long and the average adult weighs around 75 kilograms but one hulking fellow tipped the scales at more than 166 kilograms over 356 pounds enough to send chills up your spine when you know what these fearsome predators can do [Music] kimono is one of the seventeen thousand islands large and small that make up indonesia around two thousand people live here in wary proximity to one of the most ferocious carnivores on the planet [Music] the rugged island terrain consists of broad mountain valleys savannah and arid plains characteristic komodo dragon habitat [Music] surprisingly scientists didn't officially discover the species until 1910 though we know that they've shared their island with humans for many hundreds of years the komodo dragon is part of the varanid family it's a carnivore an ambush hunter rapidly charging its prey without warning it can reach a speed of 20 kilometers an hour over short distances when attacking but it is also a carrion eater ready to chow down on almost any animal carcass it's even been seen rooting through cemeteries forcing villagers to move graves to protected areas [Music] the komodo dragon is perfectly adapted to its environment and can live to the age of 50. it's one of the rare vertebrates that can reproduce by parthenogenesis females are able to lay viable eggs without male fertilization the species is endemic to indonesia and is found mainly on komodo rinsha and flores islands komodo dragons are designated vulnerable on the list of endangered species the population is estimated at between four and five thousand however recent surveys recording an abnormally low number of reproductive females have alarmed the scientific community in 1980 a national park was created for their protection park authorities are mandated to protect the territory essential for their survival as well as ensuring that the komodo dragons and their human neighbors can safely share the island biologists monitor the komodo dragon populations throughout the vast indonesian territory ahmad and denis work for a local ngo and over the years they've become experts in all things komodo dragon [Music] [Music] welcome on board thank you sedna 4 will serve as base camp for the next population census to take place on a number of islands in the sector [Music] okay so here we are the famous komodo island rinja uh where do you work mainly we have 10 sites so we work in komodo island rincha island lusakou the island is also gili matang island basically what we're doing is this is a collaboration project between the national park and our organizations how many people work with your team uh normally we work seven uh people involved in this trip we have two visitors from the american zoo so one from los angeles zoo then the other one is from knoxville zoo so because our project is also funded by some zoos in american so they come here help us and also checking to see the seed they also help learn how to maintain the population here so what do we do this morning uh we will start to set up a camera camera trap here the main idea is to know whether the dragon present in this area or not let's go then okay the census covers a huge territory and the biologists are working with limited means a number of american specialists have come to lend a hand to their local colleagues the scientists hope to learn more about the still little understood species [Music] this place is unique every time i wake up in the morning and i walk outside i see something that i've either never seen before or only seen on tv you know only read about it's it's truly like waking up in jurassic park ahmad and denny's work so hard their work ethic is unparalleled and i feel like they have a really good understanding of what to do to fully understand komodo dragons that's the first site yeah this is our first site you use goat all the time or always both because that's the best goat smells really bad and it's i think it's the best bait for attracting the dragon is there some problem with you know people and livestock like goats yeah sometimes the dragon kill goat that belong to villagers because you know the deer is the main prey for dragon and god is just almost the same with yeah the deer so we're taking the tile shot just to make the frames yeah the bait is unframed smile so you use that too for the smell around yes it's to attract the dragon the dragon have very good sense of smell they could smell for up to one kilometer because they have an organ called organic absence so they they don't use the nose like us by the end of the tongue the chemical receptor and they will transfer the chemical they take from the air to the organs it's to make sure it's cover all the area [Music] on komodo island the favorite prey are deer goats and water buffalo the dragons are not picky eaters they'll eat anything they can sink their teeth into living or dead they like to hide and wait for their prey near water ready to charge the moment an animal lowers its guard [Music] on the exterior they seem like this otherworldly you know anachronistic creature that still exists on this earth there was one situation where a dragon had tried to kill a water buffalo had been unsuccessful and the buffalo hit it you know with its head threw it into the air dragon landed and didn't move for three days and then finally after three days picked itself up and walked away so just kind of to say that they're indestructible in a way i mean they just they you saw the scars on that individual and they fight and they tear each other up they drink disgusting brackish water that's probably tainted with all kinds of things and yet they still persist overall they're strong i mean they can keep going [Music] the biologists have set up a number of motion detector cameras all over the area the smell of decomposing goat meat attracts the dragons within camera range and their visit is documented no doubt about the smell 43 picture oh so this is last one when we arrived and this is already dark big yeah oh yeah it's quite a lot here yeah that data is is taken and we get an idea how many what the the density of the dragon population is if it's in ultimately if we do this every year we can see if the population is declining or increasing okay we will split become to group one group will be responsible on the left hand side on the left hand side to take three camera trap and then the other side will be responsible to take two camera tracker okay [Music] denny leads the way we have to keep our eyes open because dragons are experts at camouflage [Music] oh there's dragon up there oh yeah can you see it i would say it's probably size for female [Music] it might be one of the dragons uh which is trapped on the camera danny the tail still looks fat so she probably didn't lay this year huh okay [Music] so this is a female we think it's a female she's not very big in fact she's probably about my height [Music] it's amazing to see how these animals just disappear in the landscape that's the greatest danger mistaking one for three trunks or a piece of dead wood you don't want that to happen [Music] based on her body condition she's probably hasn't laid eggs this year she's still got a lot of fat store in her tail she looks very healthy [Music] oftentimes you're walking down the trail and you're not paying close attention next thing you know you're a couple meters away from a dragon [Music] beautiful animal great to see when hungry dragons will go for any animal around including their own young [Music] there is kind of like shift between adult activity and hatchling activity so in the morning early in the morning when the the adult one active all the baby will be on the tree just to avoid cannibals and then once the big dragon gets slugged just because too hot and then they can go to the ground that's what i we found so far from radio tracking study sometimes i would say female also if if the male can have opportunity they will kill the the female that's right that's happening in the zoo also yeah yeah yeah is there something that they don't eat everything that only vegetables everything they are top carnival here the indonesian government and the indonesian national park service protect the dragons very well it's the poaching actually of the prey items the deer the sunda deer you know their source of food and without the deer the komodos would struggle [Music] hey hi hi how are you how i'm fine how are you good how are you any nice picture we are going to okay we just started downloading the images great yeah have a seat seriously wow it's big one that's a big one very big it's healthy that's big big healthy as well yes so it this camera is recorded not only dragon but any animals any movement can you do some photo id with dragon to recognize them um i suppose when they have big scar but it's too difficult it's very difficult you know there's some researchers use the camera to trying to identify how many dragons individual are they trying to use the macro capture method yeah because i think it's only could be done to animal that can be distinguished by the images for example tiger yes and also the rhino [Music] it's hard to determine the exact number of komodo dragons scattered over different parts of the island the motion detector cameras will tell the scientists if there are komodo dragons in a particular area but the technique doesn't provide any specific information on individuals [Music] if biologists want to follow the development of specific komodo dragons over time they have to capture them a number of dragons have small transmitters implanted under the skin that identify and differentiate them the catalog of komodo dragons is a vital source of information on the biology of the species but in order to access this information you have to capture individuals thank you the whole team meets at the entrance to komodo national park for us it's a big day capturing and handling this dreaded and powerful animal is a real challenge [Music] everyone is assembled and ready for action the modular cages will be carried into the heart of dragon habitat the biologists are confident they'll be able to catch one of the animals tagged in previous captures [Music] so these are the cages used to trap the commodore dragons they have just arrived from the village so we'll take them up to the side we'll set our bait and let's hope we managed to trap one at appear [Music] recapturing dragons is the only way to monitor the development of individual animals and population monitoring allows biologists to track the animal's health over time and observe the growth of the komodo dragons in ideal conditions the national park is the last peaceful haven for this endangered species [Music] the team will be assisted by staff from the national park these park wardens have enormous experience in dragon territory and know how to react in the event of an attack but no weapons they defend us using only sturdy fort sticks to push the dragons away one trap will be set up here yeah okay we are setting the cages up here um there are chunks of goat meat set out and a male has already picked up the scent and is trying to approach the guards are trying to control him so it should not be too hard to trap one it takes several men to manage this large hungry male the smell of the goat meat excites the animal but the park wardens keep things under control there are three baits that we put one is in the front yeah the other one in the middle part and the other one is uh tied to the string together the mechanical so it's activated so when the dragon came they will grab the first one the second one and when he grabbed the third one it will be he can lift the traps and wait there again okay everything's ready the signal is being given now the wardens can get out of the way of the increasingly famous dragon [Music] [Music] [Music] we've got to be careful not to get bitten because they charge very quickly it's amazing they rarely attack humans but when they do it's a serious matter [Music] [Music] oh [Music] [Music] is [Music] what's the plan we will open the door uh we will notice first open one of the windows here and then pull one by one from the tail and then hint leg and then tie the hind leg after that pull again tie the front leg and then try to measure this dragon okay [Music] the animal's strength is tremendous it's crucial that his powerful feet not touch the ground he could knock over anyone trying to pin him down if he gets his feet under him okay you can sit here okay yeah okay okay a little bit more okay they taped the animal's jaws shut to prevent him from using this fearsome weapon now we're gonna check the dragon whether it's been tagged or not so we usually put the tag on the right hand leg so you're going to check it with this thing yep yeah it's already okay and i'm gonna check so can help yeah we're gonna check the record whether it's from this island or from other islands just make sure yeah the first time we catch this animal is on 2004 so it's 10 years ago what is the weight or the length total only 10 kilograms 10 kilogram wow it's still oh it's is 60 kilograms we'll see later and the total length only 1.8 meters we have to measure the snout vent length because if the total length is important but just because the dragon is not regenerate their tail so this is the important one hold here okay thank you 133.5 total body length uh 2.66 2.66 pull him up okay one little moment okay one two three it's more than 10 kilos that's for sugar it's 60 60 60. this is a meal because usually the female is never weighed more than 40 kilograms okay and never uh had long more than 2.4 so 2.4 is the maximum for female we never found female more than 2.4 so we can tell for sure this is male 1 and what what is the sex racial male female in the wild scientists believe that it's the ratio is one female for three males but we still want to find out whether it's true or not how long can they live for the male they could live up to 40 years but when we're trying to estimate the age some of the milk could some a very healthy animal the male 1 can live up to 60 but mostly they live 40 years old while the females live shorter than the males probably they only live for 30 years this pen is telling us that the dragons already been measured so when the dragons come to the trap again so we didn't have to let them die just let them go first we untied the legs but people who handle the legs make sure his leg doesn't touch the ground because once he touches the ground he will be very strong and and angry guys one two three [Music] he's angry he's angry [Music] the strength of these animals is incredible wow [Music] he's not happy there [Music] this komodo dragon can now return to the peaceful forest of the park he's lucky to live in a protected area here hunting is banned this allows his prey to reproduce and be present in large numbers [Music] when food is abundant the dragons rarely fight each other but that's not always the case on other islands where there is less prey and where cannibalism has been observed [Music] komodo dragons do not live solely in protected parks where human activity is strictly regulated in some areas dragons and villagers have to share space and it isn't always easy what is the relationship between the villagers and the komodo dragons there is a mythology the commodore dragons actually uh family with the villagers and also when the dragon tried to came into the village for example when they smells food and the people didn't try to harm the dragon they just pushed the dragon away [Music] we stopped at one of the small isolated villages where people have to interact with komodo dragons age old myths underlie these shared living arrangements [Music] nice to meet you [Music] when i was a little girl my parents told me a story of a woman who gave birth to twins one a human the other a dragon the dragon ran into the forest since that time we have a blood tie with the dragons a tie so strong that we are forbidden to kill them we are not allowed to harm them in any way the dragons are actually humans with tails [Music] these widespread release provide a level of protection for the dragons [Music] dragons often attack cats or goats one came right into my kitchen and ate my cat gucci traditionally all families kept goats not anymore though because they'll just get eaten by dragons this is where the dragons live it's their home and that's just fine because tourists come here to see them it's fine with me if they attack cats chickens and goats but not our children [Music] [Music] goats cats dogs and even chickens regularly fall victim to dragons who prowl the village villagers continue to hold the mythical animal in high respect despite horrifying and sometimes deadly encounters the children were all making their way home after a day at the beach [Music] [Music] my son was sitting on the stairs all of a sudden a dragon leapt on his legs and threw him to the ground i heard screams and ran to try to rescue him when i got outside there was blood everywhere his belly had been ripped open when i got there i screamed my son is dead [Music] [Applause] [Music] i felt his last breath and i fainted when i woke up my child's body looked like the carcass of a dead animal [Music] the wound is still there and it's still hard for me to talk about [Music] [Music] i had a knife but i didn't use it i didn't want to hurt it he's a member of my family i started kicking him to defend myself eventually some people from the village came to help me they got me to the hospital i stayed there for a week is it still very painful today [Music] when i move my hand it's still painful i have to keep working to survive komodo dragons are natural predators designed to kill their prey that's why they're at the top of the food chain they've been on the island much longer than humans have they lived in ecological balance with the other species in their ecosystem before their territory was occupied for them hunting for food is essential for their survival it's also the role they play in nature their vital function within the great chain of life [Music] when hungry komodo dragons hunt with no concept of right and wrong they don't distinguish between a goat a deer or a child [Music] the dragon was 3.5 meters long the next week guards came and took him to another island i can't blame the dragon it was my son's destiny that's all there is to it every friday i think about it i pray that my son is happy where he is [Music] destiny well maybe when individual lives are ruled by a society's values and beliefs in the past goats were sacrificed as offerings to satisfy the appetite of the predators and ward off attacks but animal protection groups opposed the practice declaring it cruel and immoral so the children have learned to be wary of the komodo dragons who share their village their playgrounds their daily lives but an ambush can happen anytime yet here it's all put down to destiny villagers built a wall to protect the schoolyard but the school is at the far end of the village near the mountain where the dragons lurk here spiritual values beliefs and mythology do more to safeguard this endangered species than the concepts of protection and nature conservation [Music] did you have any uh incident yourself were you bitten by a dragon before uh for this research we catch almost a thousand individual dragon and one dragon can uh there several times so it's almost more than two thousand captures and there's no accident that is something that we're always proud of yes of course i think as long as we respect wild animal as wild animal it won't become a big problem so we can learn how to catch the dragon safe for the dragon and then also safe for researcher also but in reality there's no safety for this endangered species [Music] i would say their biggest threat would be any kind of loss of interest you know this this park is good and it's stable right now but i would say if people tend to stop being interested for whatever reason i worry that they may not protect them as well as they should they may not be as vigilant and protecting them and that could be a problem like so many species that are that are they're threatened or endangered it's habitat destruction with the introduction of of invasive species comes also disease and you're talking about a population of of animals here that's probably less than five thousand individuals that's not too many animals so if a disease you know was introduced to the islands they could quickly be wiped out despite the many threats to its precarious existence no one wants to see this extraordinary carnivore disappear the komodo dragon represents much more than a formidable predator within an ecosystem here it's considered a full member of the family of living beings only time will tell if these traditions can spare the largest dragon on the planet from extinction [Music] so [Music] me [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] we headed to the cayman islands in the caribbean sea the archipelago consists of three main islands grand cayman little cayman and cayman brac tourists and foreigners come here mainly because of the great beaches and the scuba diving conditions that make this place one of the best diving sites in the world [Music] located south of cuba and northwest of jamaica the cayman islands have an impressive marine biodiversity on land the population explosion on the island of grand cayman has reduced critical habitat for species that are threatened with extinction this is the case of the blue iguana an endemic species which is considered one of the rarest animals on the planet it can measure up to 1.5 meters in length and weigh up to 14 kilos the blue iguana can live close to 70 years but it still has to survive in its habitat in the 2000s there were few more than a dozen animals in the wild [Music] but the biologist fred burton has made it his mission to save them from extinction a daunting task for a reptile that scientists have classified as extinct in the wild on little cayman other conservation issues face the residents of the small island here biodiversity issues are not apparent but an invader has taken up residence in the pristine waters around the island and since the islanders depend on tourism and diving well they are worried in the early 1990s a few aquarium fish were accidentally released into the sea in florida native to the indo-pacific they began to reproduce and populate the caribbean this invader which now threatens the age-old balance of the coral reefs is called the lionfish [Music] in less than 20 years this species has really caused incredible havoc one lionfish living on a coral reef can reduce the population of other small fish from 80 to 90 percent [Music] the decline of the ocean's large predators combined with the uncontrolled spread of the lionfish is a recipe for disaster if nothing is done to control the invasion the tourism sector of the cayman's economy is in serious danger [Music] the professional divers of little cayman have watched as the lionfish spread throughout the island's waters now these dive guides organize a weekly lionfish hunt to try to control the dramatic expansion of the species the first large fish was discovered in little cayman about 2008 you know on the south side of the island and um it was just one lonesome fish and uh it was quickly discovered and we went out there and grabbed it and then we didn't see any fish for quite some time possibly by about six months and then we started to see not just one we started to see more than one popping up on different reefs and that number just quickly escalated into tens and then into many many many fish it took just a few aquarium fish to cause one of the worst environmental disasters in modern times the lionfish invasion continues to spread and now extends far beyond the caribbean [Music] genetically in fact scientists speculate that these fish could have come from common ancestors the few creatures released off the coast of florida that's all it takes to upset the millennial balance of an ecosystem [Music] they eat a lot pulled stomachs out of fish and seen a large amount of fish and crustaceans everything in their belly seeing them hunt fish actively on the reef and they just don't stop they have a foreign predation strategy which means the fish here don't recognize it as a as a predator they've got these really big you know pectoral fins and what they'll do is they'll sort of herd a fish towards the reef right and then they do something that's very unique and what they do is they start to blow water out of their mouth towards the prey and what they basically do is they point themselves right at the lionfish and then the lionfish just sucks it in [Music] this whole island relies on dark tourism and we are the ambassadors to this environment so it has sort of fallen down onto our hands to to look after the environment the people of little cayman are worried because they depend on tourism the spectacular beauty of the coral reefs and their colorful fish attract divers here from all over the world each week the population is mobilized a squad of professional divers set out to hunt for lionfish their goal kill as many as possible attempt to control the invasion so that other species of fish can continue to grow on the coral reefs the latest scientific study that's been completed this year in 2011 shows that to have an impact on lionfish you have to have a large concentrated effort on a small area to be effective the industry that we're trying to protect services the bloody bay marine park which is a small area of only about three miles long so we have a high concentrated effort that we're putting into that bloody bay area to try and keep our marine park relatively free of lionfish so that we can maintain the biodiversity within the marine park all right we got a penguin sleep it's up on the north side it's way past ccmi so it's going to take us about 30 minutes to get there probably good okay we have lionfish as well as the rest of the caribbean has lionfish and they've just invaded all the caribbean then there's going to be no difference from diving here in little cayman or in uh in cancun or in belize or anywhere else in the world so i think it's going to be very important that we continue killing these animals and that's the only thing that's going to keep this special spot different than the whole rest of the caribbean [Music] in the marine corps we've done a really good job of eliminating a lot of lionfish at the point where we don't see them on a daily basis anymore it's very good but there's still lots of other parts of the arm that we don't get to what we're going to get to right now but there are still lots of lionfish that need to be removed so hopefully we'll have a big uh a big turnout tonight [Music] even though the boat seems pretty busy it's you know we've virtually got everyone that's left on the island to come out today to come and call um you know with most of the divers dive master has been away for our shutdown during the hurricane season you know it's very important for us to keep culling all the time whether it be inside the marine park or outside wherever we get the opportunity to go we have to go no matter what well best case scenario we're hopefully going to have a big catch we've got 16 people in the water with 14 spears so 14 spears we're hoping for a fairly big number maybe above 80. we're always hoping for 100 we have had days over 100 so we're always hoping for a big catch [Music] [Music] good [Music] two three the efforts of the divers were successful but despite their success it is work that has to be repeated constantly because the reproductive rate of the species is very impressive and if the effort is relaxed the invaders will continue to eat all the other small fish and there will be a complete degradation of the coral reef 75 you know that's 75 fish if you average it out to 20 fish per day that they're eating that's 75 times 20 is how many fish got eaten within the last 24 hours that's a lot of fish that's a huge amount of fish so the work of biologist fred burton on grand cayman is truly inspiring with a small team he tries to reintroduce a natural species the blue iguana which many biologists already consider extinct in the wild so what do we have here so these are the uh these are the original things i always knew i wanted to get involved in conservation in some way shape or form even a small child i was crazy about that kind of stuff in europe it's very unusual to find a an ecosystem which has not been influenced at all by humans and here it was everywhere and it was a very exciting thing for me to be to be seeing these things and that was the time that i started getting involved with these crazy giant blue lizards um the first time i met one i had no idea that these things existed in 2002 we did a very detailed survey and it was the most depressing survey i have ever been involved in because all of the places we used to see iguanas there were none optimistically there cannot have been more than 12 left in the wild and they weren't finding each other to breed so the population was doomed it was functionally extinct as we put it technically speaking they were there but there was no future and this was shocking to us because we thought we had time and no no we didn't have any time at all fred burton's task was enormous in fact there were only a few creatures left in the wild and many biologists thought that fred was something of a dreamer that the task was too daunting for a single person [Music] he patiently tracked down a few wild animals and began a breeding program today the botanic park on grand cayman is home to the last blue iguanas on earth and the captive bred population is healthy [Music] so this is the captain facilities yep we have about 300 iguanas here um yeah here's here's one uh-huh this is uh we call this one juan means he's one of our founder males these are these are the original wild origin animals that we are using to represent the genetics of the original population they grow up to 10 kilograms or maybe a lot more occasionally rare dominant males can get quite giant the vegetarians they eat almost exclusively plant matter they leaves flowers berries fungi sometimes they're very intelligent they quite clearly are able to think ahead make a strategy and then carry out that strategy we've watched this um with mating strategies of the male iguanas and it's very complex their behavior they're not um they're not dumb creatures by any stretch of the imagination it all started here in a small incubator in fred's house if we'd uh left these things in the ground it would be 50 50 whether they would hatch successfully or not because the ground could get dry it could rain really heavily the pens could flood so it's much much safer to take the eggs out put them in the incubator here and here we have better than 90 percent hatch rate so that it's a very secure kind of way of making sure we get as many baby blue ones as we can from those nests [Music] when they hatch their tiny they're about this long but they grow very very fast and by the time they're two years old they're naturally predator proof effectively they get too big for the native snakes jean these are the cages where we have the two-year-old iguanas the ones the ones that we're getting ready to release into the wild eight six six six one correct all right good let's get in a bag so it will sleep there for tonight yes we'll keep them in these bags we'll hang the bags inside our backpacks ready to take in the morning and they will cool down tonight and they'll be very peaceful fred burton's great challenge now is to reintroduce the species in nature his successes but also his difficulties have become famous around the world which was what convinced the government of the cayman islands to set up a protected area where he can release the young animals in the wild [Music] but getting to the protected area is no easy task we have to walk for hours in sweltering heat on paths with razor-sharp rocks not to mention the poisonous plants cactus spines and snakes [Music] so john we are on the boundary now of uh the collier's wilderness reserve this is the protected area on our left now how big it is it's um it's about 190 acres that's right about roughly very roughly a square kilometer it's not huge but the island isn't big yeah yeah rough trail but beautiful yeah i love this environment i think it's it's like uh just like a natural rock garden yeah in 2008 we had a a disaster some drug crazed guy and an attained dog attack dog on a leash came into the captive facility here and killed um six seven eight blue iguanas it was like a slaughter and it was crazy and the news got onto that and it just went like buff all over the world but what was interesting is as soon as it went public the population of the cayman islands got up in arms there were people raising money for us companies wanted to pay for a security fence around the capture facility it was in the newspapers non-stop for two weeks here it was the disaster and media coverage that made the politicians of the time pay attention a little so what i thought was okay let's make the world care about blue iguanas and then we can tell the world if the blue iguana is going to survive we must protect some of the habitat it took a long time to work but it is working now at last it is working [Music] all right here we go john this is our little uh home from home in the woods yeah from sweden this is where uh this is where our volunteers sleep when uh when we have them camping out here this is locko he said to meet us i didn't know if we'd see him today big one this is the dominant male in this area he's uh he's the biggest land animal around so he's not afraid of us he's not afraid of anybody he was born i think in 1998 and we released him in 2001 in the botanic park and he lived there very happily for a number of years and he got very big and some of the people who visited got a little bit afraid of him and it got to a point where maybe he'd be better out in the wilderness so we brought him out here and released him with some females his objective is to have exclusive control of as many different female territories as he can i hatched this guy from an egg in an incubator we rode him for three years i think in in in the cages in the captive facility we released him in the botanic park and then he became the guy who just hung around and i've captured facility there so we got to know him very well and then uh and then we had to move him out here so this this is an old friend of mine yeah he knows me we have now 20 different unrelated wild iguanas and that's good that's enough to uh to give us the genetic diversity that's necessary [Music] on little cayman another expedition is being organized this time it's said in a four that will serve as a platform to reach a shoal called pickle bank south of cuba [Music] researchers have wanted to come here for a long time it's hard to get to so local fishermen probably don't use it much scientists hope to find large fish like groupers and sharks here and determine whether the explosion of lionfish populations is slowed by the presence of large predators hey hi hi i'm savannah nice to meet you katie so nice to meet you hi hey man how are you nice to see you man yeah is ready so we should probably get things ready and leave right now thanks chris thanks [Music] okay here we are a little cayman and here the famous pickle bank where we'll be heading in pretty soon actually so what do you expect to find there we're expecting to see lionfish but we're not sure what uh the population density will be there may be a highly high population density there may be a lower population but we're going to go and find out and that's why it's so important for us to go there is because nobody knows what it's going to be like there and it's so important you know and it's so great to have the sedna as this jumping off platform for us to really get out there and collect some data about a place that there is no data do you think that because it's far away uh and that's a place where the human impact is you know lesser than here uh do you think that we should find less lionfish than here here on little cayman we put a lot of effort into you know culling the lionfish off the reefs getting them out of out of the environment and picklebank there's nobody removing them so it could be that we drop down there and we find an explosive population of lionfish because there's there's been no human uh mediated removal of lionfish but then what neil was saying the other side of it is that it could be that we also haven't fished out the other large predators that would be either competing with or preying upon the lionfish so it could be that we go there and we find a lot of these large-bodied groupers of the larger predators and then we find a lobe by a massive lionfish so there's two opposites of the spectrum that we can see and we don't know which one it's going to be yet [Music] it takes us two days to get to pickle bank and then we have to fight with the wind and waves in the middle of the ocean to get our inflatable boat into the water [Music] we're going to do a dive today it's an underground sea mount which doesn't reach all the way to the surface so it's an area that the usually people do not go to and hopefully we're going to be able to correlate it to the reefs back in little cayman and see how that differs [Music] let's go [Music] once arrived there it was really strange for us because we could anchor the sedna four right in the middle of the ocean normally it would be too deep but as we were on a shoal a kind of underwater mountain we were able to anchor on the other hand these conditions create currents so we will have to be very careful during the dives because for the divers it could get tricky we really hope that we come up with something that we can share with the rest of the scientific community about an area in the caribbean that's very data deficient unexplored and even if we can't find a high density of groupers like we were hoping for we hope we can still bring some light to what's going on here on the seamount picklebank [Music] 250 feet stand by [Music] 100 feet 50 feet we're on site now [Music] 474 musculus musculus 906 divers in water [Music] when we jump in we don't actually know what we're going to find until we get down there and that presents challenges for us because we can start you know doing the science and then all of a sudden find out that the wall drops away from us and we just find ourselves too deep [Music] our transects are 100 meters long by three meters wide what we're recording are um the species and sizes of um large-bodied predatory groupers as well as the invasive lionfish seeing large fish like groupers is already a good sign [Music] 25.6 meters we are really on the wall and if i move a bit we'll see it going down down down and whoops it's gone it's very deep and as soon as i shift a bit on the wall we're back to depths ranging between 23 and 26 meters what we have is the caribbean sea so there's a lot of fish a lot of life what we want to check of course is whether or not there are lion fish here [Music] the invader has managed to establish itself here but there are many more large fish here than around little cayman that is good news [Music] my [Music] mike has a yellow boy and that's what really helps me to follow them in the way because with just bubbles it would be extremely difficult not to lose track of them so i always look out for his yellow boy that really allows me to know where they are [Music] it was awesome some nassau groupers more groupers than lionfish on that dive is that netcast sedina is musculus musculus 48 it was really fantastic that we were able to find this reef system that had a lot of groupers and not so many lionfish we didn't really know what to expect going down going in here and although all the data hasn't been completely analyzed then we don't want to draw any conclusions too soon it is very encouraging to see a large biomass of groupers with a small biomass of lionfish and a lot of the intact healthy small fish i just keep thinking how few people have been fortunate enough to be here and do this type of thing you know it'd be impossible to do this without without the center it would be impossible you have to have a staging platform like you said you have to it's a very pristine reef and that makes it next to the signs also very interesting for us to dive it's a little extra benefit we saw less lionfish on the star than what we expected and it can just be because of the time of day you know it's maybe good news also you know if there's less lionfish and big fish that means that maybe the ecosystem can balance you know the invasion but you know that's a big big that's a big question i've done most of my diving in little cayman which is generally considered to be a quite healthy reef but there were way more fish at picklebank and there was pretty good coral cover we did see some coral disease some coral bleaching but not too much i also i was struck by the amount of algal cover that was there as well as the coral cover and it could be just you know it's the summer time and so the algae is in its peak growth season i wouldn't say that it was algae-dominated reef i thought that there was overall a very good balance at picklebank for sure for several days we continued to dive at pickle bank it's probably too early to draw conclusions but the research has generated a lot of hope because we learned that those places that have not yet been fished still contain many large fish large predators such as groupers or sharks the lionfish is already established but we wonder if the natural health of the ecosystem might not succeed in controlling the invasion of this alien species it's still too early to draw that conclusion but this expedition does produce a certain amount of hope i think we really need environmental success stories the work of fred burton is inspiring but there are still many many more steps to take we wonder if the iguanas that breed well in captivity will succeed in doing so in the wild for example and will the protected habitats be enough to repopulate grand cayman all of the forces which drove them to the point of extinction are still operating the population of the caymans is doubling every 12 years what that means is the footprint on the land here that's taken over by humans is doubling every 12 years and what that means is that the dogs and cats that people like to have around them will be at the boundaries of these protected areas and cats feral cats particularly go wild in this island very easily and they eat hunt baby blue iguanas and all sorts of other wildlife as well but they're a huge threat to the iguanas [Music] as the island becomes more and more urbanized we have more and more fast traffic and roadkill is becoming one of the big big big problems that we have to deal with so we are going to have to secure the boundaries of these protected areas we're going to have to put up some sort of a barrier that will prevent dogs and cats from getting in and will prevent the iguanas from getting out because if they leave they will get getting into harm's way you know we will get rid of our packs here and yeah and we'll just take the iguana in now i think this one's in yours yeah yeah here we go okay so that's 575. so we're in here okay here's the box so now this uh this little iguana jean is very confused animal and uh he's wriggling around in here but once we get him out we need to give him a minute to to get used to his environment so here he is so these beads uh the small pale blue the red the big blue this is um just a an arbitrary color combination that is unique to this animal so anytime i see these beads i know that this is this animal and oh yes so now he will spend all night inside this box but then all the stress of today's walk will be gone and this will be the safe place that he he stays close to and probably for one month he won't go more than two meters away from this box okay next and the population has gone from about 12 now to about 650 700 somewhere around there it's very important i think for people working in conservation to spend at least part of their time working on things that can succeed um it's important for personal motivation but it's also important for the way that conservation is presented to the world people get very tired of hearing bad news stories all the time [Music] that's the first the first wild-born young iguana we have ever seen in this area that would be like zucker's baby for sure yeah so it is working it's working it's great [Music] so spreading the news yeah i'm just texting john murray to let him know that we got we've got wild ones running around out here already it's a great day it's cool it's really good to see it i got a text from fred and uh the text said uh just saw the first hatchling in the new reserve uh breeding is is successful out here and that just made my day zarko had a big love affair with uh with juanita and the other female we released with him and i bet you anything this is juanita's baby and zaka was the uh he's the father i played a part in establishing this botanic park i played a part in so many things here um it's important and it makes you feel that you've done something for the planet doesn't cancel out all of the rest that's going on but at least it's you know it's my part [Music] [Music] eliminating the lionfish from the caribbean is a huge challenge everyone knows that this invasive species is here for good but how do we control it we need a natural solution because we can't catch all the lionfish in the oceans [Music] neil and his fellow divers have developed a special relationship with groupers around little cayman they are training them to eat lionfish this solution probably won't work on a large scale and who knows if the groupers will develop a taste for lionfish but the initiative is an excellent demonstration of citizen mobilization to stop the spread of the invader [Music] but the lionfish is also feared by local fishermen according to an urban legend the lionfish is deadly there's a lot of myths surrounding this fish that this fish is poisonous it is not poisonous it is in fact venomous these dorsal fins are the venomous ones and it's not actually the spike itself that is venomous this that there is just the delivery mechanism what is venomous is actually inside the soft tissue here and as the spine enters the body it pushes the soft tissue back which compresses the soft tissue and that releases the protein based venom which travels up through tiny little grooves alongside the spine and that is how once the spine enters your body that the venom can then enter your body as well so something that i think is is important to point out is that this is the liver of the fish and what's interesting to note that this liver is very large it's because these fish which are wild fish are suffering from a disease called fatty liver disease which is not a fish it's not a disease that a wild fish suffer from this is a disease that aquarium fish suffer from so why are these wild fish suffering from fatty liver disease and it's because they're eating too much they eat pretty much anything they want they're indiscriminate predators and because of that they're growing too fast and they now have fatty liver disease [Music] another way of stopping the spread of the lionfish may be to eat it [Music] the flesh of this fish is exquisite and governments are trying to convince restaurants and consumers to put lionfish on the menu [Music] a consumer market for lionfish would put even more pressure on the species but it's a challenge because local fishermen fear the venomous spines of the lionfish and yet it's delicious to a permanent lionfish killing solution [Music] the caymans like many islands of the caribbean face big challenges on land urban development weakens and reduces critical habitats for many species at sea the invasion of alien species such as lionfish now threatens the entire balance of marine ecosystems citizen involvement is important and the colossal work of fred burton should serve as an inspiration these scientists dedicate their lives to the preservation of biodiversity and we must never forget that it is this biodiversity that allows our own species to survive on this planet as well [Music] you

Channel: Real Wild

Views: 238,996

Keywords: Indonesia wildlife, animal behavior, animal ecology, animal extinction, animal population, biodiversity preservation, conservation mission, dragon preservation, dragon sanctuary, ecosystem balance, natural history, nature conservation, nature preservation, reptile behavior, reptile conservation, reptile habitat, reptile tracking, wildlife census, wildlife education, wildlife management

Id: UPfkNrj9USE

Length: 84min 18sec (5058 seconds)

Published: Tue May 17 2022