What a great idea!😍🦏
We rely on dogs for many things. Besides being wonderful pets, dogs can also hold countless important jobs – including very important work in wildlife conservation efforts.
The dogs train from birth and begin working at 18 months old in for Southern African Wildlife College
They’re all vital members of the anti-poaching K9 fast response unit. Sean Viljoen, 29, based in Cape Town, South Africa, has shared photographs of the dogs in action at the Southern African Wildlife College in Greater Kruger National Park.
That’s great. They need them for stopping elephant poaching too.😍
He is the owner of a production company called Conservation Film Company and aims to use tell the stories of those on the frontline of conservation, sharing their stories of hope. Read More
Johan van Straaten, who is a K9 Master at the college, said: ‘The data we collect for this applied learning project aimed at informing best practice, shows we have prevented approximately 45 rhino being killed since the free tracking dogs became operational in February 2018.
The dogs are trained to track, bay at a person in a tree and follow basic obedience. The dogs begin training from birth and learn how to handle all the pressures of real operations before working at 18 months-old
In the areas where the Southern African Wildlife College patrol, the success rate of the dogs is around 68 per cent using both on and off leash free tracking dogs, compared to between three to five per cent with no canine capacity.
The game changer has been the free tracking dogs who are able to track at speeds much faster than a human can in terrain where the best human trackers would lose spoor.
Pictured, dog handler Precious Malapane with a puppy in training to be an anti-poaching dog. All breeds of dogs from a beagle to bloodhound can be trained to stop poaching
Animals protecting other animals against the sickness and wickedness of mankind. ❤️
As such, the project is helping ensure the survival of southern Africa’s rich biodiversity and its wildlife including its rhino which have been severely impacted by wildlife crime.
Dog handlers Precious Malapane and Robynne Wasas are both part of the ‘K9 unit fast response’ team and help to train the anti-poaching dogs.
South Africa faces a huge poaching problem given that 80% of the world’s rhino population lives within South Africa. As a result, the past few decades have seen more than 8,000 rhinos have been hunted and killed by rhinos – with South Africa having the highest concentration of all countries.
At six months we put all that training together more formally.
On February 3, Department of Environment, Forestry and Fisheries reported that a total of 594 rhinos were poached in the country throughout 2019
That’s great that they saved 45 rhinos.💖
About time. Hopefully the poachers got what they really deserve ……..