Tracking dog practices in ZooParc with tracking down endangered pygmy hippo

A very special exercise took place at ZooParc Overloon on Friday: a specially trained dog, Boyd, was tasked with tracking down the pygmy hippopotamus living at the Brabant Zoo. This is one of the last exercises before he boards a plane to Ivory Coast later this month to search for this highly endangered and very hard-to-find species in this country.

The dog is being used by the IBREAM (Institute for Breeding Rare and Endangered African Mammals) foundation. This organization is dedicated to the conservation of endangered African mammals, including the pygmy hippopotamus, a species much smaller than the common hippopotamus. A pygmy hippopotamus weighs about 300 pounds while the common hippopotamus easily weighs about 3,000 pounds.

The exact numbers in the wild are unknown, but it is estimated that there are only a few thousand. They are found only in the jungle in West Africa, in an area of about 5,000 square kilometers, in the countries of Ivory Coast, Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone. IBREAM's project focuses on the population in Taï National Park in the Ivory Coast. This is where the largest population of surviving pygmy hippos is located.

Shy
Monique Paris, founder and director of IBREAM and associate professor of Wildlife Biology, says: "In order to properly protect this species and create a good conservation management plan, it is very important to know how many animals live in this park and where they are. But because they are incredibly shy, this is very difficult to map. With the help of this specially trained dog, we hope to be able to track them better and thus collect more data from them, which we can then use to ultimately ensure the survival of this unique species."

Dwarf hippos hide in the water during the day, and at night they go into the jungle in search of food, but manage to do so in such a way that they are rarely spotted. IBREAM has been focusing on the pygmy hippo since 2008 under Paris' leadership. In 2010, the foundation succeeded for the first time in capturing images of dwarf hippos living in the wild thanks to special camera traps, confirming their existence in the park.

Contribute
ZooParc has been supporting IBREAM through Stichting Wildlife for several years and it is partly thanks to donations from the Overloon Zoo that the foundation has now been able to take this step with the tracker dog. Koen Peters, zookeeper at ZooParc, is pleased that they can contribute to the preservation of this species in this way. "As a zoo we work hard for all endangered species and we feel extra connected to the animals living in our park. We really appreciate that in addition to a financial donation, we were able to actually help IBREAM with this project by providing scent samples and now having the dog practice here in the park."

Dog Boyd was trained by Wesley Visscher of Scent Imprint Conservation Dogs. He regularly trains dogs that are used for a variety of conservation and detection projects at home and abroad. "I have been training with Boyd for over a year now and the cooperation of zoos is essential in this. All the parks where pygmy hippos live, besides ZooParc also Gaia Zoo and Diergaarde Blijdorp, have helped me tremendously by providing me with scent samples, such as poop, water in which the animals have rolled or cloths on which they have lain."

Because pygmy hippos are in the water a lot, Visscher has been out in the canoe regularly. As a result, Boyd has been trained to recognize the scent of pygmy hippos both over land and in the water. He has also visited a number of zoos with Boyd to practice over land.

Successful
The exercise at ZooParc went smoothly. Boyd managed to find the dwarf hippopotamus enclosure in one go. Peters: "They were very curious: they are not used to dogs, because they are not allowed in the zoo. One of the animals really came to see what was going on. But then they went back to their normal ways. So as far as we are concerned, a successful exercise."

Over the next week, Boyd will do a few more exercises and then he, Visscher and some IBREAM project staff will get on a plane to the Ivory Coast to test whether Boyd can now find the pygmy hippo in the jungle. Paris: "We are ready."

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