Search and Rescue Grant

I was looking for more information on lost hikers I heard about this morning (lost coming off Chocorua Monday without maps or lights after a late start) and read about this grant Fish and Game just received.

Here's the link: http://www.wildlife.state.nh.us/Newsroom/News_2011/news_2011_Q4/foundation_canine_grant_120911.html

Basically it is $2500 from the Fuller Foundation to grow the canine program. One thing I didn't think about was that search and rescue dogs can also be trained for fish and wildlife detection. (Like mountain lions?) The grant was presented to The Wildlife Heritage Foundation of NH, which I also didn't know about, and is the fundraising arm of the F&G.

Interesting what you find out when you are looking for other news, isn't it?

If dogs can be trained to detect lung cancer with an 80% success rate just by sniffing a patient's breath, I'd bet that detecting different species of wildlife is probably a piece of cake.

DSettahr said:

If dogs can be trained to detect lung cancer with an 80% success rate just by sniffing a patient's breath, I'd bet that detecting different species of wildlife is probably a piece of cake.

Click to expand...

Any wild animal has to be good at identifying any species that it can eat or that can threaten it or it will not survive. Domesticated versions of these animals presumably retain (and can be trained to exploit) some of this ability--the problem is getting them to tell humans what they detect...

Doug

The conservation officer in question already has a distinguished record of finds with his aptly named dog "Poacher", including evidence of poaching violations, SAR finds and homicide cases: Poacher the Pooch has busy year.

And he's one heckuva nice guy, to boot.