If you want to witness Indonesia's mighty Komodo dragons within the wild without seriously breaking the bank, you will have to enter quick.
Indonesia intends to start charging tourists the equivalent of A$1400 to visit its famed Komodo Island.
The remote island hosts the Komodo dragon, and has seen an enormous tourist boom recently.
Currently, tourists pay around A$14 to visit the island and it is star attractions.
However, the Indonesian government says the growth in visitor numbers has had an ecological toll around the island’s fragile dragon population.
It was previously suggested that Komodo Island might be closed to visitors entirely.
Local governor Viktor Bungtilu Laiskodat said closing the area was necessary to prevent interference with the dragons’ mating and hatching cycles.
However the secretary of state for environment announced since the island would remain open, but that an “exclusive” membership scheme would be set up.
“People will have to become members and pay $1,000 [A$1000] to get in for just about any year,” said the region’s governor Laiskodat for the BBC, adding, “I believe that’s cheap”.
The extra funds allows conservation efforts to become boosted, as well as the 2,000 residents of Komodo – who'd happen to be relocated for the past year – will be permitted to stay.
Laiskodat’s spokesman Marius Jelamu told the BBC that “the development in the community around the island is going to be restricted so the village doesn't become too large and threaten conservation efforts,” he said.
“You'll also have more teaching programs within the village to make sure the town are fully area of the conservation effort.”
Komodo a dragon is the biggest lizards on the planet, reaching as much as three metres long.
One in the planet’s most fearsome beasts, they've razor-sharp teeth along with a venomous bite.
Around 1,700 survive Komodo Island, having a further 1,000 located on the island of Rinca.
The Komodo National Park is really a Unesco World Heritage Site.
