A little while ago devastating bushfires ravaged parts of New South Wales and Queensland in Australia. The fires destroyed houses and also led to many animals being hurt and/or killed. In fact, despite prompt response by many citizens, koalas and other animals succumbed to burn injuries.
Now, a team has been set up to search for any koalas that may have survived the bushfires. And an important member of the team is the ‘goodest boi ever’, Bear, who helps detect surviving koalas.
Bear, who is a border collie mix, has been specially trained to sniff out and detect koalas who may be orphaned, injured, misplaced, or sick. In fact, in order to be able to detect koalas, you need a special set of skills, which includes hyperfocus and a lack of prey drive – two things Bear excels at.
Bear, who is six years old now, was actually abandoned as a pup for the very qualities that make him an amazing detection dog. But, he was adopted by Detection Dogs for Conservation, and today, he does his best to find injured koalas.
Of course, Twitterati was in love with this adorable cutie and his honorable actions:
Here’s hoping that with Bear’s help, the Koalas have a fighting chance to survive the devastating fires.
All images from IFAW Facebook post, unless specified otherwise.