2013 has been an amazing year for all dogs and staff at Conservation dogs. We could not have dreamt of having the response we have had from setting up a dog section for the detection of smuggled animal products and wildlife in 2011.
We continue to be called out to help search for the elusive Pine Marten in Wales and Shropshire and I am happy to say this working relationship is to continue into 2014 with more pine marten scat searches already booked.
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| Luna whilst searching for Shropshire Mammal Group. |
Luna has made her new years resolution to never give up looking for Pine marten scats in the Shropshire area as she determined to prove their existence there.
In January 2013 we deployed the worlds first Ivory, Pangolin scale, Leopard Skin, Shark Fin and Iboga Root detection dogs to Gabon and started the gruelling 3 month handler procurement and training program for the Gabonese Government;
- Gabonese National Park Agency = Agence Nationale Des Parcs Nationaux (ANPN)
- The Ministry of Water and Forest =(MINEF)
- Wildlife Conservation Society = WCS
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| Cooper and Lumi with Handlers and Dog Vehicle Driver |
To date the success of these dogs has been shocking, in such a short time of there operational searches they have had numerous find - thus helping stop the illegal wildlife trade and helping prevent illegal poaching.
This is the blue print of more dog sections to come and with Lumi and Cooper leading the way- soon the fight against Wildlife Crime and illegal wildlife Trade will come to a head! We all need to try to help make a difference in regards to wildlife conservation.
New projects have been initiated and have had great success- our Dormouse Nest Detection Dog Kim is fully trained and ready to trial. Its now a matter of setting up the right project with Cheshire Wildlife Trust and other Trusts around the country to utilise Kim in the best way possible.
Our other dog Kim, a Springer spaniel- has been trained to detect Great Crested Newts. this training process due to the sensitive nature has taken much longer than usual sniffer dog training. However we are on the road to having a fully trained GCN detection dogs. She will initially be used for research surveys and for a specialist report that is planned with experienced Ecologists. Once this Study is done we should have available a GCN Dog and Handler team a for hire.
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| Kim our New GCN detection dog. |
The worlds First Great Crested Newt Detection dogs- that has a good ring to it!!!
That is not the end of our interesting new projects or exciting requests, from illegal fishing net detection dogs, to Big Cat scat detection dogs- we have inquiries daily to help assist with wildlife projects or wildlife crime prevention in the UK and Abroad.
Conservation Dogs were kindly invited to attend and exhibit at The National Environmental Crime Conference in London in November. This was a honor to be invited and it was a thrilling event to be present at. Conservation dogs were the only detection dog experts at this conference and we made many new contacts and hopefully some more future clients as well. Watch This Space!
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| Our display area at the NECC 2013. |
https://www.facebook.com/NationalEnvironmentalCrimeConference
So a quick round up of some of this years news links and videos, please see below some of our best article this year and some great footage of our dogs working.
ENJOY!!
http://edition.cnn.com/2013/09/25/world/africa/poaching-stinks-dogs-sniffing/index.htmlhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EDlfuq9dpfA
http://www.worldsecurity-index.com/pressdet.php?id=5265
http://blog.petplan.co.uk/11/2013/pet-people-features/the-conservation-efforts-of-luna-the-labrador/
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sD6nzbi-VIg
http://www.co-operative.coop/join-the-revolution/our-blog/biodiversity/people-and-pine-martens-in-wales/Pine-marten-update---July/
