Tuesday, October 17, 2017
FOUR puppies are joining the Conservation Dogs Programme to help with the fight against predators to our native species. Photo supplied
AN elite squad leading the fight to rid New Zealand of predators has received reinforcements, with four puppies to join the Conservation Dogs Programme, thanks to major partner Kiwibank.
The new Border Terrier-cross pups will undergo specialist training in pest detection before permanently joining the Department of Conservation’s specialist conservation dogs unit. Two will be based in Auckland, and one each in Warkworth and Wellington.
The expanded programme will also fund four full-time dog handlers, based in Whangarei, Auckland, Whitianga and Wellington.
Kiwibank’s Mark Wilkshire said the new recruits added more firepower to the team leading New Zealand’s mission of being predator-free by 2050.
“The predator-free mission is New Zealand’s biggest conservation battle. We’re going to throw everything we can into winning this fight.
“Launched last year, the Conservation Dogs Programme has enjoyed spectacular success. The pest detection dogs are highly accomplished at finding pests and the species dogs are trained to locate threatened species, for monitoring and protection purposes.
“With this expansion, we’re arming DoC with more dogs and more handlers, to move us closer to the predator-free 2050 ambition.
“ The expanded dog unit aims to increase surveillance by 60 days per annum, quarantine inspections by 80 days per annum and improve the response time to an incursion by responding to 100 percent of incursions within 24 hours where a dog is required.”
The Conservation Dogs Programme uses highly-trained dogs and professional handlers for conservation work with protected species. Today there are 84 conservation dogs in New Zealand – 53 find protected species, 31 find pests.
The four full-time conservation dog handlers will join the team of 19 pest detection and 50 species dog handlers (comprising DoC staff, most of whom are part time, and external contractors).
DoC’s conservation dogs team consists of different breeds of dogs, all for different purposes. For example, pointers are often used for finding threatened species so they can be banded, monitored or moved, while terriers are used to track down rats and stoats for targeted control.
Kiwibank and DoC joined forces in September 2016 in a national partnership to support Conservation Dogs.