Dog Sniffs Out Threatened Snakes

What do you do if you're a wildlife biologist trying to track an elusive snake inside a vast swamp? You call in the dogs.

Researchers in Georgia's Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge recently employed a dog named C.J. to help sniff out threatened indigo snakes inside the refuge, the (Georgia) Cherokee Tribune reported.

Reaching seven feet in length, indigo snakes are the longest snakes in North America, according to the University of Georgia. Once common in the southern U.S., the snakes have become threatened with extinction due to habitat loss.

Refuge scientists knew that the slippery black snakes make their homes in the swamps of Okefenokee, but they weren't sure how many were there or where they were living, wildlife biologist Sara Aicher told the Cherokee Tribune. To help them with their reptile census, Aicher and her colleagues called in C.J., a 7-year-old chocolate Labrador, to sniff out the snakes.

C.J., who was rescued from a shelter, has had lots of experience locating wild creatures, the Cherokee Tribune reported. He's also sniffed bats in New Mexico, monkeys in Nicaragua, and big cats in Brazil. But he's not the only dog with a nose for wildlife. Conservationists are increasingly turning to sniffer dogs to help them track wild animals.

In New England, researchers studying endangered whales have even brought in dogs to sniff out whale poo, the Boston Globe reported. That's right -- whale poo. Scientists collect the dung to study what parasites and toxins might be harming the endangered whales.

Snakes, bats, monkeys, whales... what's next? When it comes to protecting wildlife, it seems, the dog's nose knows.

Tags: okefenokee, smell, snake, sniffer dog, SnifferDog, whale, wildlife