The work on counting crocodile population has been carried out at night by using searchlights. It was really harmful for the survey team members to worn in the streams and creeks at night while there is little water in them. Because of low tide and another danger is that the large crocodiles used to float themselves up and down the current in the streams.

Dr. John Thorbjarnarsan of the Wildlife Conservation Society switched on his searchlight as soon as he saw a crocodile. As the crocodiles have ruby eyes, survey team members can notice from afar if there were crocodiles in the stream or not. The team could differentiate large and small crocodiles by studying narrow and wide sizes of their two eyes. A small crocodile has a narrow space between its two eyes and there is a wide space between the two eyes of a large crocodile.

The survey team members stopped the engine of the motor boat as soon as they spotted a crocodile in the stream for a closer look at it. The crocodiles used to run away as they heard approaching noises. The excursion group members first counted the number of crocodiles they discovered and calculated the time of finding them one after another. These two ways are applied in counting the crocodile population in Myanmar. The excursion group sailed along the Thabyay creek up to 11:30 p.m. for surveying of the crocodile population and then returned to their camp in the Main Mahla Island Wildlife Sanctuary.