The Saint Louis Zoo, in St. Louis, Missouri, is home to over 12,000 animals spread over 500 species. Recognized worldwide for its dedication to the care and preservation of the animals that live within its confines, the St. Louis Zoo is one of the few free zoos in the U.S.

The zoo recently faced an event of epidemic proportions. Fortunately, they were able to call in some canine reinforcements who helped save the day.

WildCare Park

One of the zoo’s many residents, the box turtles at the St. Louis Zoo live within WildCare Park a 425-acre site, WildCare Park is home to the many reptiles and amphibians that are a part of the zoo’s conservation efforts.

The arrival of a deadly virus, called ranavirus, at the St. Louis Zoo, threatened the very survival of the animals found in WildCare Park, especially the turtles.

What is ranavirus?

Ranavirus is a virus that can be deadly to a variety of cold-blooded wildlife, including amphibians, reptiles, and fish. Of course, turtles being amphibians, are susceptible to the effects of the virus, which has caused mass mortality events in amphibian populations around the world.

Calling for help

Spread throughout WildCare Park, the turtles were hard to find for treatment and observation. To help them, the zoo called upon John Rucker, known as the “Turtle Whisperer.” He arrived with seven Boykin spaniels to help in the efforts to find the turtles.

Boykin spaniels

Boykin spaniels are known for their strong sense of smell. This allows them to find animals, such as turtles much quicker.

The spaniel team had already helped officials in Iowa and Illinois find box turtles in the fight against ranavirus.

Where it would take researchers weeks, the dogs were able to sniff them out in hours.

In addition to their keen sense of smell, Boykin spaniels are also known for their soft mouths. This feature allowed the dogs, to retrieve the turtles and bring them back to the researchers without harming them.

Preventive measures

Once with the researchers, the turtles were tagged and had their mouths swabbed.

The researchers plan on observing the turtles over the next year to see how they fare. It is important to fight ranavirus in turtles because the virus can be 80 percent fatal if not caught early.

And while ranavirus is not yet at deadly levels among the area’s turtle population, it has been detected in a few box turtles in the St. Louis area.

The researchers are proactively testing to get ahead of any outbreaks of the virus.

“Every year we do annual health assessments of our turtles at our field sites. We spread out in a line and just walk the woods, eyes to the ground—and we don’t do it well because they’re good at hiding,” Jamie Palmer, of the St. Louis Zoo Institute for Conservation Medicine, said. “There’s so much error in humans, and we’ve spent hundreds of hours. But dogs, their noses are better than ours…and we’ve seen them find a lot of turtles.”

For more on the efforts of these gentle dogs, see the video below.

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Sources: YouTube – FOX 2 St. Louis, Good News Network, Saint Louis Zoo, Northeastwildlife.org