This is Splash \u2013 a wannabe search-and-rescue superstar training to hunt for missing people in Florida\u2019s murky waters. Oh, and did we mention he\u2019s an otter?\u00a0<\/p>\n
The intrepid mustelid<\/a> is the latest addition to the team at Peace River K9 Search and Rescue. They\u2019ve traditionally used dogs to track the scent of missing people, but when investigations spill underwater, a canine\u2019s capabilities are limited.\u00a0<\/p>\n “The saying was that the investigation ends at the water\u2019s edge,” Mike Hadsell at Peace River K9 Search and Rescue told<\/a> Tampa\u2019s local news outlet WTSP. “I thought, why can\u2019t we train an otter to do this kind of work?”<\/p>\n Having posted online about his out-there approach to underwater search-and-rescue, Hadsell was contacted by an Arizona zoo with an ideal candidate: an Asian small-clawed otter<\/a> (Aonyx cinereus) called Splash.<\/p>\n For a little over a year, Hadsell has been training Splash in his backyard, filling three kiddie pools with water as well as, ominously, the scent of human remains.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n “Splash is trained to locate and identify the odor of human remains. So, his job is to find the human victim underwater in the low visibility conditions that we can’t see them,” Hadsell told WTSP, explaining that humans emit over 500 volatile organic compounds unique to our species that can be used to locate us.<\/p>\n “You’ll see all these bubbles coming out, and he’s sucking some of those bubbles back in and he’s tasting them. The odor attaches itself to the bubble, and then he tastes it when it comes into his mouth. And so that’s how he does it. When he finds something, he comes back and he grabs my mask,” Hadsell added. His good work is then rewarded with a treat of salmon.<\/p>\n Splash and the rest of the rescue team have also branched out from backyard pools to Florida\u2019s waterways. The curious carnivore is tethered to a line to keep him safe and make sure he doesn\u2019t swim off, and he\u2019s tracked by his teammates and sonar. The biggest threat both he and his human counterparts face is from alligators, Hadsell says.\u00a0<\/p>\n