Adam Funk
2005-09-21 09:09:26 UTC
Maybe it's a good thing they don't throw sheep heads out for the kites at
Nant-yr-Arian.
http://travel.guardian.co.uk/saturdaysection/story/0,,1571765,00.html
--> Before the Komodo National Park changed its procedures and
--> policies in 1994, visitors were packed off along 2km of
--> trail to a natural amphitheatre in a hot, dry and dusty
--> river bed, where they were plonked down on benches and
--> expected to endure a spectacle of sorts as a pack of usually
--> solitary 3m-long lizards tore to pieces a goat that had been
--> specially killed for their benefit. This gladiatorial
--> experience was bad for all involved: tourists, dragons, park
--> guards and, not least, the goat. Just like the velociraptor
--> in John Drummond's Jurassic Park, Komodo dragons are smart,
--> and it is this intelligence that was getting them, and the
--> small amount of tourism they generate, into a bit of a
--> compromise situation. Just like any smart large animal that
--> has no fear of humans, they had come to associate tourists
--> with food; and when a large, fast running, hungry predator
--> with the teeth of a shark and toxic saliva that can induce
--> death by septicaemia in 72 hours starts showing an interest
--> in tourists, you have a problem.
-->
--> This is not just me being sensationalist - tourists and
--> villagers really have vanished. The problem is real. The
--> dragons started pre-empting the feeding session and adopted
--> a more human approach to the issue - why wait to be fed when
--> you could ambush the guards with the dead goat on the way
--> and save yourself the walk?
Nant-yr-Arian.
http://travel.guardian.co.uk/saturdaysection/story/0,,1571765,00.html
--> Before the Komodo National Park changed its procedures and
--> policies in 1994, visitors were packed off along 2km of
--> trail to a natural amphitheatre in a hot, dry and dusty
--> river bed, where they were plonked down on benches and
--> expected to endure a spectacle of sorts as a pack of usually
--> solitary 3m-long lizards tore to pieces a goat that had been
--> specially killed for their benefit. This gladiatorial
--> experience was bad for all involved: tourists, dragons, park
--> guards and, not least, the goat. Just like the velociraptor
--> in John Drummond's Jurassic Park, Komodo dragons are smart,
--> and it is this intelligence that was getting them, and the
--> small amount of tourism they generate, into a bit of a
--> compromise situation. Just like any smart large animal that
--> has no fear of humans, they had come to associate tourists
--> with food; and when a large, fast running, hungry predator
--> with the teeth of a shark and toxic saliva that can induce
--> death by septicaemia in 72 hours starts showing an interest
--> in tourists, you have a problem.
-->
--> This is not just me being sensationalist - tourists and
--> villagers really have vanished. The problem is real. The
--> dragons started pre-empting the feeding session and adopted
--> a more human approach to the issue - why wait to be fed when
--> you could ambush the guards with the dead goat on the way
--> and save yourself the walk?