Early this year, bushfires devastated Australia. Plenty of people and wildlife were greatly affected. Rescuers and volunteers signed up to help stop the fires. All their effort became fruitful when the bushfires were contained.
Bear is one of the volunteers who helped out quell the bushfires. Bear is no ordinary volunteer because he is a dog. Yes, that’s right. He is a border collie mix with blue eyes to be exact.
This dog is part of the Detection Dogs for Conversation of the University of Sunshine Coast. His job is to find the koalas that need help using his nose. The USC trained Bear to do this job with the International Fund for Animal Welfare as their partner.
When the fire started, Bear was assigned to help rescuers find the koalas that were affected. With his keen sense of smell, he was able to track a lot of koalas that needed help. The team that he worked with were quite happy with the job that Bear did and they want to have him on their side as they continue on finding and rescuing koalas and other animals that need help in ecological areas.
Celine Frere works as an associate professor for the conservation and she said that their goal is to have teams go out on the field daily to areas that were affected by the fires. Humans alone can have a hard time looking for animals that need help. But with Bear’s nose, they could be able to get to quite a huge amount of animals.
Bear is six years old already. He was sold in a pet shop and a family bought him as a pet. However, he had too energy that the family found it hard to keep him as a pet.
This energy that Bear has made him the perfect dog to help out the rescue team. With the proper training, Bear has now become quite an essential part of the team.
Source: bearthekoaladog
