00:00It's man's best friend, Lending, a paw. Kelly and Milo are the first detector dogs
00:09to be permanently based in WA to improve the state's management of dieback.
00:13Parts of the dieback management puzzle that have been really challenging up to now and
00:18the dogs can come and fill in that puzzle piece to help us get a better strategy overall.
00:25The pair of 14-month-old English Springer Spaniels are trained to sniff out the smallest
00:29scent of the disease before signs of infection are visible to conservationists, a trick experts
00:35say is a game changer.
00:37We hope that this program will accelerate the identification of dieback samples, making
00:44it cheaper and more accessible and easier to rapidly clear areas.
00:49Dubbed by environmentalists as the biological bulldozer, dieback has wreaked havoc on the
00:54country's native vegetation for more than 50 years by attacking and rotting plants at the
00:59roots.
01:00It's wiped out up to 90% of plant species in some areas and affects some of WA's most
01:06well-known species like Proteaceae which includes Banksias and Hakeas.
01:11Rising temperatures making the disease harder to manage.
01:14So we've had a lot of drought making it really hard to read those landscapes and the dogs are
01:19better able to read those landscapes and they can also do it immediately in the field.
01:24dieback detection possible in minutes instead of weeks.
01:28Dieback is still our number one threat in WA because it just impacts so many species over
01:32such a large area.
01:34The DBCA secured $1.3 million in grant funding from the Commonwealth's Saving Native Species
01:40Program for the project which will see the dogs travel across WA over the next six months,
01:47sniffing out any sign of dieback to help authorities manage the spread of the disease.
01:54And with an average career of 10 years, these clever canines will be making their mark.
01:58fine work.
Comments