(WSVN) - Dogs have become a new weapon in the fight against an invasive species in the Everglades, as the canines are being trained to pursue Burmese pythons.
The python eradication effort, which has been ongoing for years now, is now getting some four-legged back-up.
Giving the Burmese python the boot from the Everglades takes a team effort and creative ideas, so the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, Water Management and the National Park Service came together and decided it was time to call out the dogs.
“There’s only so many tools in the toolbox, and this is the latest one to search out and seek the pythons,” said FWC Chairman Rodney Barreto.
Truman and Eleanor are members of an elite squad tasked with ferreting out Burmese pythons hiding throughout the river of grass.
“The dogs bring a slightly different approach to finding pythons. They aren’t visually searching for pythons. They are trained to search using their smell,” said FWC Commissioner McKayla Spencer.
Using their unique search and seizure skills, the dogs lead their handlers to the slithery threat to the Everglades ecosystem.
“We specifically train the dogs to find Burmese pythons. Yesterday, as we were working, the dogs bypassed two native snakes and gave no alerts at all,” said J & K Canine Academy CEO Pepe Peruyero. “We want to make sure we don’t get a positive or false positive on a non-targeted species.”
The state has invested billions to keep the Everglades strong and healthy, only to have the reptile invaders repeatedly ruin it.
“We’re spending billions of dollars on re-plumbing the Everglades, but if we re-plumb the Everglades and there’s no native animals left, we’ve failed,” Barreto said.
However, officials are determined to win the battle with the beasts, even if they have to use other beasts to do it.
“We need to eradicate the python from the Everglades,” Barreto said.
It takes about three months to train the dogs to sniff out the snakes.
Copyright 2024 Sunbeam Television Corp. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.