Wildlife officials in Florida have been training two dogs to help them track down invasive Burmese pythons. For the past month, Truman, a black Labrador retriever, and a point setter named Eleanor have been working with handlers to learn how to identify the scent of the invasive snakes and what to do when they find them.
"Python-scented towels and live pythons with surgically implanted trackers were used to train the dogs on python scent," the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission explained.
When one of the dogs identifies a python, they are trained to stay at least three feet away and alert their handler. Once the snake has been located, a biologist will safely capture and remove the snake from the area.
The agency boasted the Truman located his first snake, an eight-foot-long male python, on December 8 in the Rocky Glades Public Small Game Hunting Area in Miami-Dade County.
Authorities hope the new Detector Dog Team can help them eradicate the invasive snakes, which started showing up in the state in the 1980s. Since then, they have caused drastic declines in the populations of native species.
"The most severe declines in native species have occurred in the remote southernmost regions of Everglades National Park, where pythons have been established the longest," the United States Geological Survey said. "In a 2012 study, populations of raccoons had dropped 99.3 percent, opossums 98.9 percent, and bobcats 87.5 percent since 1997. Marsh rabbits, cottontail rabbits, and foxes effectively disappeared."
Photo: Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission