An ingenious South African program to protect endangered species is showing impressive progress. Dogs are trained from birth to join a special K9 response unit that protects wildlife from poachers. While the pups may be all from different breeds, they share a common mission; and they so far have saved 45 rhinos from illegal hunters.
Johan van Straaten, from the Southern African Wildlife College in Greater Kruger National Park, South Africa, is the man in charge of training the pups for the K9 unit. Van Straaten says the off-leash dog project became operational in February 2018.
