With their keen sense of smell, ability to learn tasks and friendly demeanor, dogs have been helping people with jobs for centuries. Some roles you may be familiar with are police dogs, service dogs and therapy dogs. But did you know dogs have also been trained to help with wildlife conservation?
Learn about the fascinating ways dogs have assisted with conservation from Mutual of Omaha’s Wild Kingdom Protecting the Wild Co-Host Peter Gros.
Dogs on Mutual of Omaha’s Wild Kingdom
‘On the Arctic Ice Pack’
Mutual of Omaha’s Wild Kingdom was most known for introducing viewers to exotic animals and places. But it also had a few canine appearances, like Lil, the black Labrador retriever.
In the Season 26 episode, “On the Arctic Ice Pack,” Peter joined Host Jim Fowler in Barrow, Alaska, to observe research on ringed seals and polar bears. The researchers there trained Lil to find ringed seals, which have a distinct musky smell that a dog could pick up on better than a human.
“We rode around the ice flows on our snowmobiles, towing a sled that had a warm dog kennel and a down vest made for a dog,” Peter said. “As soon as we would stop, Lil would stand up and sniff the air and then take off running because she could smell the ringed seals. So, we would then chase her across the ice on snowmobiles.”
Lil was trained to sniff out the seals and then get back into her kennel, because if seals were found, polar bears (seals’ predators) would be close by. Using a dog greatly helped the researchers find seals and polar bears who blended in with the snow.
“Lil was this great dog that spent six days with us traveling around in the snowmobile,” Peter said. “I bonded with her. She would run up to me in the snow and roll over and get pets. Without Lil the ‘wonder dog,’ they wouldn’t have been able to find the ring seals and eventually the polar bears.”
‘Trailing the Midnight Sun’
Earlier on the classic series, Host Marlin Perkins encountered working dogs. Season 3, Episode 2, “Trailing the Midnight Sun,” featured sled dogs near the Arctic Circle. Marlin saw how Inuit have raised sled dogs to transport them during a hunt for seals, whales and caribou.
“The sled dog had to be very intelligent to take voice commands to lead others out with their whaling boats,” Peter said.
How a dog rediscovered an extinct species
Though most dogs on Wild Kingdom were trained professionals with jobs, one featured dog unexpectedly became a conservation hero.
In 1981, Shep was a family dog who lived on a ranch in Wyoming. One day, Shep came to his family’s back door with an animal hide in his mouth. His owner didn’t recognize the animal and took the hide to a local expert who discovered it was a black-footed ferret — an extinct species. Experts searched the family’s ranch and found black-footed ferrets living with prairie dogs.
Shep’s story is told on Mutual of Omaha’s Wild Kingdom Protecting the Wild Season 1, Episode 21, “Conservation Comeback.” In the years since Shep’s discovery, conservationists have taken action, setting up breeding facilities to help gradually reintroduce black-footed ferrets to the wild. And Shep’s family set aside thousands of acres of their ranch just for prairie dogs and black-footed ferrets.
“If it weren’t for good ol’ Shep who brought this hide back to the ranch owners, they would’ve never known to go look for black-footed ferrets to rediscover them,” Peter said.
Leave the jobs to the professional dogs
Though Shep was a family pet, dogs with wildlife jobs are highly trained, professional working animals. So, don’t train Fido to sniff out wild animals.
Experts look for dogs with traits like high intelligence, great strength and the ability to handle extreme climates. Some breeds include pointers, Labrador retrievers, German shepherds and Anatolian sheep dogs.
The dogs are then trained to go from point A to point B, where they get a reward. This teaches them that when they find whatever they were trained to seek, they’ll get something in return.
“It’s fun for the dog,” Peter said. “The dog aims to please and they love to do this. They’ll do this all day long if they could. But they’ll do it for a few hours and then give the dog a break, give it some water and cool it down and then maybe go out again.”
Though many dogs may share similar training to learn commands, such as “leave it,” or “sit,” most dogs’ main jobs are to simply be a pet, like Gracie the French bulldog is to Peter.
“They’re great companions,” Peter said. “I like to start young people with them. It’s a great way to teach responsibility early on.”
Learn about another pup who helps with wildlife conservation, Newt, the turtle tracking dog.
