08-04-2025
Rare discovery in Aussie bush by sniffer dog: 'Incredible'
Wildlife experts have trained three specialised dogs to detect some of Australia's rarest reptiles, which they say will be a 'game-changer' for protecting the species. The three dogs, Daisy, Sugar and Kip were selected for a months-long program that taught them to sense the critically endangered Victorian grassland earless dragon.
For decades, scientists had feared the tiny lizard species was extinct because less than 0.5 per cent of its original habitat has yet to be destroyed, and they hadn't been seen since the 1960s. But in 2023, it was accidentally rediscovered by ecologists who were surveying private farmland that was earmarked for development.
The Zoos Victoria-led detection mission involved specialist trainer Dr Nick Rutter, who said the relationship each handler builds with an individual dog is the 'cornerstone' of how effective their work is. Because dragons are so rare, the dogs only had limited opportunities to smell them during training, but they were quick to learn. "Training them, being out in the field — is really important,' Rutter said.
Dragons spend much of their time out of sight, hidden inside wolf spider holes. But the dogs are able to detect them with their specialised sense of smell that's up to 100,000 times more acute than a human's, discovering 10 new dragons that ecologists had previously been unaware of.
'When Daisy and I found our first dragon, it was absolutely incredible… she alerted to a little hole in the ground and I quickly got out my endoscope and put a little camera down in the hole, and there was this tiny, adorable little dragon face staring back at me,' Rutter said.
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A similar program after the 2019/2020 Black Summer bushfires trained dogs to locate pungent koala scats, so burned animals could be brought down from trees and treated. The dragon detection is helping researchers collate data about population density and help them locate animals to add to their captive breeding program at the zoo.
The dragons were rediscovered in Melbourne's west, a region that has been flagged for extensive housing development. Zoos Victoria now plans to take their dogs on sniffing missions outside the rediscovery site, in the hope more dragons will be found. They could also be used in the hunt for another dragon species that hasn't been seen since the 1990s, that ecologists in Bathurst are currently searching for.
The trial was a collaboration between the Resilient Landscapes Hub, Wildlife Detection Dogs and Zoos the results published here.
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