Sniffer Dogs Trained To Conserve Penguins At Sydney's North Head (VIDEO)

In an ironic twist for the little penguins of Sydney's North Head, a usual predator has come to their rescue.

According to the Office of Environment and Heritage in New South Wales, the penguin population has dramatically decreased to just 60 pairs after once numbering in the hundreds, due to dog and fox attacks, habitat loss and nesting site disturbances.

To protect what is left of the the endangered colony, Australian Wildlife Services have started using specially trained sniffer dogs to track and monitor the birds.

An English Springer Spaniel named Eco has been called to the job. Not only does Eco sniff out the tiny penguins, which stand 30 cm tall and weigh about 2.2 pounds when fully grown, the dog is on the tail of the cats, foxes and other dogs who are not after the penguins' best interests.

"I've trained her to passively respond when she detects a penguin burrow," her trainer Steve Austin told Australian Geographic. "In contrast, when detecting foxes, Eco's response is very active whereby she vigorously digs the area when she detects a fox den."

Wiinterrr's Day reports that park ranger Melanie Tyas says the birds were difficult to find and conserve because they stay hidden during the day, only coming out at night. Rangers can tag birds and get a better idea of what the penguns are doing with Eco's help -- According to Australian Geographic, the dog takes one hour to cover an area that would take 10 people four hours to monitor.

The penguins are not the only ones being helped by the nose of their predators. Working Dogs For Conservation has sent one of their trained sniffer dogs to China to help out on a research project that analyzes Asiatic Black Bear (also known as Moon bear) feces in an effort to conserve the endangered population.

Even cheetahs have benefited from the help of clever pooches. The elusive species was becoming increasingly rare across Africa, according to Wildlife Extra in July 2010, and is currently classified as vulnerable on the IUCN Red List. A Welsh company specializing in training sniffer dogs, Wagtail UK, was reported to be helping to track the big cats in their native South Africa.

Using a sniffer dog to track Sydney's little penguins is a pilot program, according to Wiinterrr's Day, which started at the beginning of November.

Comments

[AgainstAnimalAbuse]

12:42 PM on 11/27/2011

The more I know people, the better I like dogs, not just mine!

[karen lyons kalmenson]

07:03 AM on 11/27/2011

the list of why dogs rule just keeps getting longer:-D

[Linus521]

01:04 AM on 11/27/2011

According to history, the number one transported, introduced invasive predator Australia should be most concerned, is the domestic cat, a top agent of the extinctions of native species, globally. Australia should recognize this, as in 1997, a member of their parliament called for the total eradication of all domestic cats on that island because, cats, alone, have caused Australia 13 extinctions of birds and animals that occurred no where else on the Earth.

[mamacat]

02:44 AM on 11/27/2011

I thought you were going to say that the number one predator causing extinctions has been mankind.

[karen lyons kalmenson]

07:02 AM on 11/27/2011

he is!!!

[Linus521]

01:24 PM on 11/27/2011

Wasn't it man that transported rats, cats, pigs and the mongoose around the world?

[AgainstAnimalAbuse]

12:41 PM on 11/27/2011

Even though I am not a cat person, eradicating any one species is not right, a lot of cats never go outside either, I just wonder if cats are being targeted for some nefarious reason.

[Linus521]

01:32 PM on 11/27/2011

Differences occur in animals. If the animal or plant is a natural, native specie, it is a creator of his ecosystem and holds down a job in that ecosystem or biological diversity. Domesticated species are merely that, either created by man and not the Earth or transported from continents away.

For instance, the penguins are biological diversity, in the eco-nomics of all life, including yours. Man crossed the European wild cat with the African cat and produced the domestic cat. If the domestic cat is permitted outdoors to hunt on his own free will, he will most likely kill a strand in the web of all life. Science compares the extinctions of biological diversity as a danger to man's very existence, up there with thermonuclear war.

In the U.S., alone, each day, the domestic cat kills 4.5 million birds, every day and for every bird a cat slaughters, he kills 3 to 6 additional animals, and the lion's share of these are biological diversity, the nuts, bolts and rivets of spaceship Earth. Of all the introduced, transported predators that caused global extinctions, cats and rats were the worst with cats causing double the number of extinctions.