Australia\u2019s most famous koala-sniffing dog \u2013 who has helped save endangered koalas from fires and floods \u2013 has hung up his little red boots, with the search now on for his successor.<\/p>\n
After a decade helping rescue koalas, 11-year-old detection dog Bear retired in March.<\/p>\n
His exit left conservationists scrambling to find a new recruit capable of plugging gaps left by human spotters and infrared detection technologies.<\/p>\n
The ideal candidate will be energetic, obsessed with fetching balls and have absolutely zero interest in chasing wildlife.<\/p>\n
\u201cThose dogs often don\u2019t make the ideal family pets, but Bear was born to be a detection dog,\u201d the International Fund for Animal Welfare Oceania programs head, Josey Sharrad, said.<\/p>\n
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Bear was rehomed multiple times before landing with trainers a decade ago.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe literally ate the walls of his Gold Coast apartment in one home,\u201d Sharrad said.<\/p>\n
But his intense focus made him a perfect fit for the long hours of conservation work. During the Black Summer bushfires, Bear helped find more than 100 koalas, many in need of urgent veterinary care.<\/p>\n
His red boots and life-saving work attracted an international following, including stars Tom Hanks and Leonardo DiCaprio.<\/p>\n
Now, conservation groups are teaming up with the University of the Sunshine Coast and a French canine expert to train the next koala detection dog.<\/p>\n
Frederic Chappee spent years leading canine units in the French army before training anti-poaching dogs in Africa and Indonesia.<\/p>\n
The successful recruit will likely be medium-sized, younger than two years old and comfortable charging through dense bush, he said.<\/p>\n
Unlike other koala detection dogs, which are trained to sniff out droppings, Bear was trained on the scent of live koalas – often high above the ground.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s a bit of a tougher job than finding poo,\u201d Sharrad said.<\/p>\n
The dog will work alongside drones and human spotters, particularly after bushfires, floods and cyclones.<\/p>\n
Koalas were listed as endangered along much of Australia\u2019s east coast after catastrophic habitat loss during the Black Summer fires.<\/p>\n
Against a backdrop of increasingly frequent and devastating climate disasters, dogs play an increasingly important role, Sharrad said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey can smell what we can\u2019t see,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
The work is demanding and the hours can be long but the lifestyle, on Queensland\u2019s Sunshine Coast, has its perks.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe best thing about these detection dogs … [is] they have the best of both worlds,\u201d Sharrad said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey\u2019re working during the day and they\u2019re living the life of a pet for the rest of the time.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Australia\u2019s most famous koala-sniffing dog \u2013 who has helped save endangered koalas from fires and floods \u2013 has…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":682930,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[43,44,41,39,42,40],"class_list":["post-682929","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/682929","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=682929"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/682929\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/682930"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=682929"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=682929"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=682929"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}