Super-Sniffer Dogs Are Being Trained To Protect Newly-Transferred Cheetahs from Poachers In India

Rediff

It’s been at least seven decades since Cheetahs were seen sprinting across the giant plains of India, but thankfully, they’re back. Now, the Indian government doesn’t want to take any chance with their safety, which is why they’ve hired a group of unexpected and extraordinary specialists to help them out.

This remarkable group happens to be made of six German shepherds that are set to patrol the grounds where the cheetahs now live for any signs of possible poachers. And the land they are set to protect covers an 80,000-acre property known as the Kuno National Park.


According to the Asian News International, they reported that the dogs are currently undergoing a 7-month training program with none other than the Tibetan Border Police Force’s National Training Center for Dogs. Here, they will learn to perfect and hone their tracking skills, as well as their obedience, amongst other forms of expertise.

The cheetahs needing protection, are comprised of five male and three female wild cats, were released on September 17 after being flown in from  a game reserve found north of Windhoek, Namibia, making it the first-of-its-kind international translocation of cheetahs. They were formerly declared extinct in India back in 1952 precisely due to being over hunted. Now, the animals’ greatest stronghold happens to be Namibia due to its ‘open flat ground, sparse populations, and rich game numbers.’

NDTV

The Indian Prime Minister, Narendra Modi, shared in a video address, “Today the cheetah has returned to the soil of India. The nature loving consciousness of India has also awakened with full force. We must not allow our efforts to fail.”

The South China Morning Post shares that Ilu, the German shepherd, alongside her teammates, will be trained to sniff out such things as elephant tusks, tiger bones, and other highly trafficked wildlife parts to help them do their job in protecting the cheetahs.


Inspector general of basic training at the Tibetan facility, Ishwar Singh Duhan, told ASI, “Dogs trained at the ITBP dog training center have a high rate of wildlife crime detection. There are scores of success stories where dogs have helped in the arrest of poachers and recoveries of wildlife species and their remains.”

Although there are still 7,000 cheetahs in existence across the African plains, another major sub-species called the Asiatic cheetah is sadly hanging on by a thread. They once roamed from Arabia, through the Fertile Crescent and Zagros Mountains, making their way to India and Pakistan.

It is many people’s hope that they will manage to recover in India, and eventually create a diverse and growing population in order to protect its species from such localized catastrophe issues such as drought, disease, reduced genetic diversity, and even civil war in order for them to be protected for the future of this majestic animal.

 

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