ANYWAYS... meet Floris! He's an adorable German Shepherd mix. I asked one of the trainers how old Floris was and he thinks about 5 or 6. He's usually used to search for explosives in places and cars, but now he's joined the exciting world of conservation and is looking for cheetah poop!
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| Floris with his ball after a searching session :) |
Right now Floris lives at KK Security.
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| KK Security - area to the right is to the dog kennels |
We are being trained to be handlers by their handlers! They hide the scat for us and help us in directing and trusting the dog to lead us to it.
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| KK Security trainer giving us some tips. |
Today we planted lion scats as well as cheetah scats. The dogs indicate a find by sitting where they smell the cheetah poop. Neither of the dogs indicated at the lion scat, which is great news! By not indicating at the lion poop we know they can differentiate between cheetah poop and other predator poop. We found all the scat samples that we hid, even after we forgot where one was hidden. The dogs eventually led us to it!
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| Searching for cheetah scat! |
It's really fun to work out in the field with the dogs, even when they weave through the thorny thickets unaware that you lack the fur coat of protection. They get so excited once we put their "working" harnesses on. Some days it can be hard to stay positive when you're feeling frustrated, but the trainers from KK do an excellent job reminding us to stay positive and keep us motivated. We always end on a positive note with a cheetah poop find and lots and lots of praise. :)
Floris is so handsome! I'm very jealous you're doing scat-dog work. When I was contemplating a PhD, I was totally working a scat-dog into my project. Then I was going to have some poor student/intern (like you) do the actual poo work -- poop dust would not be good for my hair ;-) Keep us all posted!
ReplyDeleteHi Morgan! What an awesome dog you're working with. I can't' wait to hear more about your adventures in Africa. I hope you get a chance to take lots of pictures, especially of all the awesome insects?!? I'm thinking there must be a lot near all that cheetah poop. :)
ReplyDeleteHaha, I have so many pictures of bugs. It's terrifying. Every time we plant cheetah poops during training by the time we find them they are full of dung beetles. I had no idea they came in so many weird colors. I'll post some soon! Also I found a HUGE and very colorful grasshopper today!
ReplyDeleteFloris is so handsome!
ReplyDeleteAHEM... *clears throat*... Florus is so handsome! = )
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