Koda - Bear Tracking Dog
Koda the dog is the
youngest member of the team at the Andean Bear Project - he was born in
the summer of 2010. Koda is half Akita, half Ecuadorian
street dog. The street dog in question, his father, is large
and brave. Akita dogs like Koda's mother have traditionally
been
used in Japan to hunt bears. Even as a tiny puppy, Koda
showed no fear of bears, in contrast to most Ecuadorian dogs, who are
terrified even at the smell of a bear.
Koda was gifted to
project manager Armando Castellanos and received his name by popular
vote amongst Bubu
bear's friends on Facebook at the time. The
Foundation plans to train Koda to track Andean bears to help with
research. He will help us to find scat and hair samples for
genetic analysis and to find the bears themselves in order to fit them
with radio collars and track their movements.
Trained
Karelian bear
dogs are used in other countries to help manage human-bear conflict
with other species of bears. After a visit from Lori Homstol
and her Karelian bear dog, Sisko, we believe that bear dogs could play
an important role in helping Andean bears. We had planned to
save up for a Karelian puppy (and might still do so) but in the
meantime we received Koda as a gift. By a stroke of luck, he
has the courage, intelligence and aptitude for the job, with the
advantage of having been born right here in Ecuador. He just
needs some basic dog training classes to start with, and then more
specialised training for tracking bears.
We have started a fund to
cover Koda's dog training classes and other costs and are very grateful
all our
donors so far. Donations to our bear-dog fund can be made
via Facebook at the
Cause Train a Bear-Tracking Dog to help Save
Andean Bears or using the PayPal button below.
Koda lives with Armando
and loves to travel in the car with him whenever he gets the chance.
Koda is also learning to
help track
tapirs. Armando is an expert in tapirs as well as bears, and
is
currently working on a study of mountain tapirs in Ecuador.
He
plans to use Koda to help him capture five wild tapirs in order to put
satellite collars on them.
Koda,
bear-tracking dog
Koda the dog is in training with the Andean
Bear Project in Ecuador and will help the project find and track Andean
bears for research
