Meet the Two Heroic Dogs Rescuing Koalas From Australia’s Deadly Bushfires

(L: Illustration - Shutterstock, R: Illustration -Getty Images)

Australia’s devastating fires have left the country charred and forced the evacuation of many while burning significant sections of the country’s forests. And it’s here that they have wreaked havoc on one of the country’s national animals, the koala.

This native marsupial lives in the trees, but as a herbivore, it depends on the foliage for food. As the fires have swept through the country, often with little warning, koalas have been caught in the blaze and many have been harmed or displaced from their territory.

But two special dogs named Bear, a mix of border collie and Australia’s native koolie, and Taylor, an English springer spaniel, have been doing the work of sniffing out koalas in the burnt forest so they can be rescued and treated.

Bear works for the Detection Dogs for Conservation, with the support of the International Fund for Animal Welfare, a non-profit organization that is dedicated to protecting animals and the planet. Bear accompanies first responders to the scene of recently scorched forests in the hope that he will locate any koala survivors in need of treatment. Meanwhile, his human team members keep their eyes on the canopy and follow Bear’s lead.

Bear’s handler, who is based at the University of the Sunshine Coast, in Queensland, Australia, has even fashioned special booties to keep the dog’s paws safe from still-hot ashes. As Josey Sharrah of the IFAW said in a statement, “Now, more than ever, saving individual koalas is critical. With such an intense start to the bushfire season, it will be many weeks and months before some of these fires are out.”

Currently, the outlook for koalas is bleak. Though their official status is listed as “vulnerable,” the Australia Koala Foundation believes there’s good evidence to relist them as “critically endangered,” which makes even more sense given the fires that devastated their habitats and killed many.

Even still, the fires in Queensland have not been contained, and Bear’s work rescuing koalas continues. “All the while, wildlife will continue to need to be rescued and treated, and might remain in care for some time,” said Sharrah. “The road to recovery will be long.”

Bear’s route to becoming a much-celebrated koala tracker started with behavioral problems. His previous owners gave him up for adoption after they found out that he had “obsessive-compulsive disorder,” which made it impossible to have him around other dogs. However, the University of the Sunshine Coast realized that this condition could actually make him extremely useful when it came to tracking wounded koalas.

After undergoing extensive training to sniff out koala fur, and not just feces, like most other detection dogs, Bear was put to work. IFAW’s Rebekka-Thompson Jones described his method: “Once he finds a koala, he sits very still to indicate to a human that he is near a koala. He’s then rewarded with a ball which he'll chase.”

Around Halloween, when blazes surged near Port Macquarie, several hundreds of koalas were estimated to have been burnt to death. The director of the koala hospital there, Cheyne Flanagan, told ABC News, “I think this is just a national tragedy that we potentially have lost an enormous population of animals.”

Noting that some 60 to 70 percent of their populations have been killed in some areas, koala conservationists have grave concerns about their localized extinction. “They’ve got to re-establish themselves, the food trees have got to grow and recover, and then those animals have got to start breeding to repopulate those areas of empty habitat from which animals have been lost,” the ecologist Dr. Stephen Phillips said.

Taylor is another detection dog who has been playing a significant role in helping koalas trapped in areas affected by bushfires. She was trained since 8 weeks of age, and her entire litter, including her dad, all work professionally to find animals such as cane toads, rats, birds, lizards, and snakes.

According to the Daily Mail, Taylor is specialized in searching for koalas, quolls, foxes, cats, and rabbits.

Trainer Ryan Tate told ABC News: “Every time she smelt koala poo or koala fur, she'd get her favorite reward which, as a puppy, was a tennis ball and treats.”

Now, the dog that has been saving koalas follows their scent of poo and can find an injured one from 125 meters away.

Tate and Taylor have focused on the major area fires that were known as koala habitat. The heroic dog was able to find 15 koalas, including a mother and her joey.

Tate, whose wife and he are hardcore conservationists, said: “Taylor’s very speedy and very dedicated and covers a lot more area much faster than we do so it’s been a great asset.”

On Jan. 7, TATE Animal Training Enterprises wrote on Facebook: “Unfortunately, due to the fires currently raging across NSW and Victoria, the area is now an active bushfire site and the site is closed.”

They further added: ”Much of the work we do revolves around being in the bush with our dogs. Having spent so much time recently with Taylor, (pictured with Ryan in the fire zone and the middle dog in the group shot), searching for injured wildlife in burnt bushland around the mid north coast, we were looking forward to the cooler temps, fresher air and greener landscapes.”