How do you count more than 60,000 sea turtles?

[pesco]

Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2020/06/10/how-do-you-count-more-than-60.html

…

[FGD135]

[longtimelurker]

Turtle: “Dude, I didn’t ask for this white tat. Whatcha doin’, man”. I’m just trying to find some action here.

[teknocholer]

Count the flippers and divide by four?

[generic_name]

I’m gonna guess you use numbers.

[CanadianBeaver]

" How do you count more than 60,000 sea turtles?"

One at a time?

[zfirphdn]

It’s interesting to see this posted so close to Pesco’s post about the “blue eyes/brown eyes” exercise. I can’t help wondering if the other turtles notice the white marks or not.

The linked article about the marking and drone sighting does say this about the use of marking/counting methods:

… the limitations are ubiquitous across marine and terrestrial species, as are the assumptions that must be met. Marked and unmarked animals must be similarly detectable irrespective of environmental conditions, marks must not influence the behaviour of the animal and marks must be stable over time

I suppose the marks don’t physically affect the turtles that are marked themselves…but do the other turtles treat them any differently—even subtly—I wonder??

[Tamsin_Bailey]

“This will go quicker if you just line up, it’s your own time you’re wasting!”

[Tamsin_Bailey]

“Shun her, Margaret, she’s been marked.”
Could be?

[Faffenreffer]

Alas, can it be that the great A’tuin has fallen? The end of turtle days draws near.

And the second beast required all people turtles small and great, rich and poor, free and slave, to receive a mark on their right hand flipper or on their forehead, so that no one could buy or sell unless he had the mark—the name of the beast or the number of its name.

[vrplumber]

Play this song more than 12,000 times?

Lou Bega - Mambo No. 5 (A Little Bit of...)