“I started thinking that maybe there was another animal that could find these scats by relying on their nose.”
Koala poo is very smelly, but it doesn’t smell like poo – it smells like eucalyptus.
Using your eyes, they are quite hard to spot, but for dogs the smell would be like a rose in the bush,” Critescu said.
Maya was a rescue puppy that was trained for this work and to find koalas scent. Maya is a blue merle border collie.
Now, Maya helps lead other dogs in research and conservation, Critescu co-founded the USC Detection Dogs for Conservation (DDC), an organization that trains dogs to help with conservation.
Now that Maya is a senior dog, she’s happy as can be.
Critescu says of Maya, “I don’t think they care how old they are, and I don’t think we should care either.
I never see Maya as an old dog.
I see her as a friend, an amazing colleague, and a wonderfully happy personality.”
Sign this petition to demand that the government in Australia ban logging in koala habitats now!
This article was first published by OneGreenPlanet on 7 December 2020. Lead Image Source: Maridav/ Shutterstock.com.
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