I just read the coolest article from TheBark.com and wanted to share with you:Donna Shaver is the owner of Ridley, the dog who is helping find the 'missing' nests of the most vulnerable of the seven species of sea turtles. Shaver explains that, "we have had a huge increase in nesting in the last five years". But for the turtle's future to be secured, the number needs to grow by about 10 times – or to approximately 1,950 – within the next 10 to 20 years.
Shaver began to exploit Ridley's acute sense of smell to locate these elusive eggs. "I've known for years that dogs are used to find illegal drugs or explosives at airports and locate trapped people after earthquakes. So I was anxious to see if Ridley could find the 'missing' nests." Says Shaver. At a freshly emptied turtle nest, Ridley's attention was directed toward its pungent scents of hatchling turtles. After he got a nose full, Shaver and her fiancé Stephen Kurtz filled the empty nest with sand, walked him down the beach for about a half-hour and then told him to "go find the nest".
Within about 10 weeks, he was ready to begin the real work of finding the few but critical "invisible nests" the Gulf wind had hidden. Now, he is brought to the beach several times each year to find nests at track sites where humans have been unsuccessful. Found eggs are relocated to the humidity- and temperature-controlled incubation building at NPS headquarters. "I actually think Ridley understands just how important what he's doing is; he gets so excited when he finds a nest, even before he gets his reward," says Shaver.
Ridley Shaver not only lends a paw but most importantly, a nose to this environmental success story.
