Many dogs are being employed in Australia to rescue koalas from the catastrophic bushfires that are expected to continue for several more months.
Ryan Tate, the owner of an organization based in Sydney called TATE Animal Training Enterprises, has contributed to saving dozens of koalas by providing a team of pups trained specially for the task.
Tate told reporters that one of their dogs named Taylor has been able to save eight koalas since September.
Like most detector dogs, the 4-year-old Taylor locates koalas by sniffing out their fur. Usually, the detector dogs are able to identify koala scent and find them even if they are high on trees because their scent drops down.
When the conditions are windy, then it becomes hard to detect the smell, and in that case, Taylor tries to search for koala poop to identify where the animals could be. Human experts then come in to scan the trees that the dog identifies for possible koala presence.
“Koala, find!” is the command that the trainers use to get the dogs going on their mission.
Steve Austin, a dog trainer, told reporters that the detector canines such as Taylor have become extremely important under the present grave circumstance in Australia.
Steve said that koalas were one of the most important wildlife animals in Australia but were currently facing the threat of extinction. Steve added that training more dogs to save the koalas was an immediate requirement of the time.
Mathew Crowther, a wildlife ecology specialist, told reporters that the ecosystem in Australia affected by the fires might take a long time to recover, and it might not be the same because of lost species.
So far, 25 people lost their lives, and more than 2000 homes were destroyed due to the raging bushfires in several parts of Australia.
Image source: Ryan Tate via ABC News
