Bushfires don’t just destroy human homes. They can also leave a lot of animals homeless, and that includes koalas.

Knowing the dangers bushfires pose to koalas, teams of brave people went out of their way to check for surviving animals in the burned areas.

That’s when Bear, a koala detection dog, was sent on a mission.

He has been deployed to check the ruined and high-risk areas of Queensland.

Being trained to find injured, sick, and orphaned koalas, he played an important role in rescuing the animal survivors of Australia’s wildfires.

Bear has been taught and trained to identify koalas by the scent of their fur.

It’s a legitimately lifesaving skill since he’s able to pick up scents even when the koalas are trapped in charred trees and burnt grass.

“Our koala detection dog Bear is an integral part of these rescue efforts. He was recently deployed to southeast Queensland and one of the hardest-hit areas of New South Wales where the bushfires decimated local koala populations. Bear is one of the few detection dogs who can locate live koalas through the scent of their fur,” the International Fund for Animal Welfare shared.

Bear was an abandoned dog.

He was purchased as a puppy. Unfortunately, the family that bought him realized that he was too much for them after moving to a smaller home.

Bear was abandoned by his former owners. He was taken to the Detection Dogs for Conservation. There, they found Bear to be obsessive, completely uninterested in people, and he disliked being touched, making him less than an ideal family pet.

His traits made him an excellent koala detection dog, however.

For a dog to qualify for the job, he needs to meet a couple of criteria. First, the dog needs to have zero prey drive. The last thing anyone wants to happen is to have the detection dogs attack the vulnerable koalas.

The dog also needs to be hyper-focused. Finding koalas by their scent is not easy, particularly when one is working in areas damaged by fire.

A koala detection dog must also possess no interest in people.

His main concern and interest should be the koalas and their possible locations. Bear, a border collie/koolie mix, has met all of the criteria.

He has been effective in doing his job as well. Since he’s trained to find surviving koalas, he’s able to lead rescuers straight to them and has saved many of their lives in doing so. They were even able to rescue live koalas that were trapped high in trees.

Koalas are surviving, thanks to Bear and other rescue teams.

The bushfires have caused severe damage across the country. Despite that, there’s still a sliver of good news. The first rescued koalas are beginning to be released back into the wild already.

Last March 25th and 27th, a non-profit group was able to release 12 koalas into their natural habitat.

Dr. Kellie Leigh, the executive director of Science for Wildlife, said:

“While they have coped well in care, we are delighted to finally send our koalas home. We have been busy assessing the burnt area that we rescued them from, to establish when the conditions have improved enough that the trees can support them again. The recent rains have helped and there is now plenty of new growth for them to eat, so the time is right. We will be radio-tracking them and keeping a close eye on them to make sure that they settle in OK.”

Thanks to Bear and his unique personality, many more koalas will carry on the life of their species in the years to come.

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Source: Independent, Bored Panda, The Animal Rescue Site