Animal fecal samples can reveal a lot about how they are doing. But first you have to find the heaps. Tracking dogs in Australia are specially trained to detect koala droppings.
In Australia, dogs not only sniff out drugs on behalf of the police, they also sniff out koala droppings for science: With their sensitive noses, two dogs named Bear and Billie-Jean have tracked down dozens of piles left behind by the endangered marsupials in recent years. The focus was on those areas in Queensland that were particularly hard hit by the devastating bush fires of 2019 and 2020. The droppings collected here will be analyzed along with samples from other areas to determine how natural disasters are affecting the health of koalas – and how the cute animals could be better protected in the future.
The sniffer dog team from the University of the Sunshine Coast and the animal welfare organization IFAW said the hormone levels and intestinal bacteria in the koalas’ remains were examined. Results are expected in the coming year, says Romane Cristescu, director of the sniffer dog team.
“Detection dogs can be trained in many ways and for many different smells or tracks,” says the expert. Police dogs search for drugs or money, for example, while others are trained to sniff out products from the wildlife trade. There are also experiments in which dogs are supposed to sniff out diseases such as cancer or a corona infection in humans. “Our dogs, on the other hand, are trained to recognize the smell of koalas and quolls,” says Cristescu. There are currently only a few dozen four-legged friends specializing in koalas, but the number will probably increase significantly soon.
Studies on the health of koalas are more important than ever after the Australian government officially declared endangered koalas in three states in February vulnerable (endangered) up endangered (Endangered), says IFAW expert Wendy Simpson. “Koalas are generally a pretty resilient species. They can take a lot, but only up to a point.”
The massive bush fires from August 2019 to March 2020 hit the popular marsupials particularly hard. They spend most of their lives sleeping in trees and are mostly very picky about special types of eucalyptus. In the wild, they sometimes sleep 20 hours a day – more than sloths.
According to estimates by the environmental organization WWF, more than 60,000 koalas, which are only native to Australia, were killed, injured, displaced or traumatized in the devastating bushfires. Images of animals with singed fur and burned paws went around the world.