Koala-sniffing Dogs Being Used Following Australia Bushfires

avatar


Sniffer or 'detection dogs' are truly incredible with their ability to detect a wide variety of substances ranging from drugs to currency, blood, animals, electronics and even diabetes and cancer.

These dogs offer incredible value to criminal investigations around the world, helping to find missing people, evidence, and more.

It's alleged that sniffer dogs have demonstrated the ability to detect a buried body, up to a little more than 12 feet underground.

But criminal cases aren't the only value they bring, helping to find dead bodies or missing people.

They have also recently been used to help find animals in Australia following the bushfires.

Koala detection dogs have been searching various regions in Australia, and looking for koalas that might have been injured and left needing help because of the bushfires. The dogs are trained to be able to sniff out koala fur specifically and can lead rescuers to finding live koalas. Only one of the dogs so far, named Taylor, had been helpful in finding eight koalas. Once they discover the koalas they then relocate them to safe areas.

Though they have been recently used for searching in wake of the fires, researchers have been using sniffer dogs for years in the region to help them locate various koala populations across Australia.

Sniffer dogs are being trained to detect lung cancer, malaria parasites, and more.

"Before these fires, we weren't sure that koalas existed in many of these areas,.... If they're trained the right way, the limitations of dogs are very few," - conservation biologist K. Leigh

The dogs get trained from a very young age, between 18 months and 2 years old, being taught to associate a reward with the source of an odor.

The handlers working with the dog provide great value themselves to the experience as well, because they are trained to pick up on the signals from the dog, they need to know how to read the body language of the dog and notice when they might have picked up on a particular scent.

Aside from using sniffer dogs to help them detect koalas in Australia, researchers admit that they will be conducting studies in an effort to discover any distribution patterns throughout the region, and will also collar the animals with GPS so that they can further track their movements.

Pics:
pixabay



0
0
0.000
3 comments