The latest pup to join Zoos Victoria’s Wildlife Detection Dog Squad is Eddy, a six-month-old Hungarian Wirehaired Vizsla in training at Healesville Sanctuary, who is putting his nose to the test to help scientists search for threatened species.
Zoos Victoria Wildlife Detection Dog Officer Naomi Hodgens says Eddy is friendly, playful, energetic, and a little bit cheeky!
“I love that Eddy is active and keen to give anything a try with me. We have lots of fun playing during and after his training sessions at Healesville Sanctuary”, Naomi says.
We chose Eddy for the program because he is confident and adventurous, as well as his motivation to work with people to find things.
One of Eddy’s favourite things to do is to swim.
The plan is for Eddy to be trained to locate the critically endangered Plains-wanderer – a unique native bird that lives in grasslands.
As time goes on, he may also learn how to search for other threatened species from Zoos Victoria’s local priority threatened species list.
(You can find the list here – https://www.zoo.org.au/fighting-extinction/local-threatened-species/)
