Australia: Trained dogs rescue seven koalas alive from bushfires

Detection dogs, Missy and Taz have reportedly rescued seven koala survivors by sniffing them out of the Australia’s deadly bushfires. The pair of springer spaniels were deployed by The World-Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) group, in partnership with environmental consultants OWAD Environment in the koala habitat impacted areas of Queensland Southern Downs, Maryvale, worse affected by the bushfires.

As per reports, the dogs have been incredible assists in search and rescue operation for the Koalas and managed to extricate an infant koala and his mother on the first day of search in to the scorched forests.

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Dogs 372% more efficient in crisis

Olivia Woosnam, Director, OWAD Environment, told the media that the team does gruesome and a challenging job of having to scratch through the leaf litter and find koala scats, which is like looking for a needle in the haystack for the humans. However, she added, dogs rely on their nose and sense of smell to scan the landscape and take the team to the location of koala scats way quicker than humans can without them.

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Koala conservation ecologist, Olivia Woosnam, reportedly said that the dogs managed to detect areas still broiling, snuffed through 10 kilometers of forests ablaze in Marvale and recovered five more marsupials. Dr Stuart Blanch, senior manager of land clearing and restoration, for WWF Australia told the media that finding seven koalas alive amid the destruction in just two days is an encouraging start. He said that it was remarkable to have a few koalas survive the fire and rescued as they can recolonise the charred forests as it regrows.

According to WWF Australia, the Koala detection dogs have proved to be 372 per cent more efficient in the crisis in finding the trapped koalas, and have earned global recognition and appreciation for rescuing the animals out of the bushfire tragedy.

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