From bears becoming food-habituated to traffic collisions with elk, outdoor recreation has always posed a thorny problem. How can people enjoy the great outdoors without harming or interfering with wildlife?
The National Park Service (NPS) has been working for decades to reduce human–wildlife conflicts. Now it’s got a new recruit: a specially trained dog named Blue. She is a certified Catahoula Leopard Hound who recently started working at Grand Canyon National Park to help shepherd wildlife away from busy visitor areas. Blue was “selected for her strong herding instincts, trainability, and calm temperament,” the NPS said in a press release.
Meet Blue
Catahoula Leopard Hounds are a “multi-purpose working dog that is well-muscled and powerful, but with a sense of agility and endurance,” according to the American Kennel Club. That makes Blue genetically gifted for the work she’ll be doing at the National Park.
In her day-to-day, Blue will use barking and herding pressure to move wildlife, such as elk and big-horned sheep, away from busy areas of the park, including the South Rim and Grand Canyon Village. The NPS said animals moving away from her barking is a natural response to a predator cue. She will always be on a leash under a handler’s control and will never make direct contact with any animal.
The Program
Blue is part of the Conservation K-9 Pilot Project, a 3-year pilot program currently in its first year. Dogs in the program are trained to “encourage animals who are habituated to humans … to avoid developed areas where interactions with visitors can be unsafe to both visitors and wildlife,” the NPS explained.
“Grand Canyon’s elk and bighorn sheep have become increasingly comfortable in developed areas over the last two decades,” said Brady Dunne, wildlife biologist and project lead for the pilot program, said. “This project gives us a humane, science-based tool to help encourage more natural wildlife behavior while improving visitor safety.”
Wildlife becoming used to humans can pose several issues. They may block roadways or display aggressive behavior during calving or rutting seasons. If animals display repeated aggressive behavior toward humans, they may be euthanized. Blue’s job is to help prevent the issue from getting that far.
15 Years in the Works
Researchers spent 15 years studying wildlife and data on human-wildlife interactions before embarking on this program.
“The long-term goal of the project is to encourage elk and bighorn sheep to spend less time in human-dominated areas and return to more natural habitat for grazing, bedding, and calving. Park managers hope the effort will reduce aggressive wildlife encounters, roadway blockages, and the need for lethal wildlife management actions,” the NPS said.
The NPS has plans to track how effective the Conservation K-9 project is. Staff fitted nine habituated elk and five habituated bighorn sheep with trackers. They hope to gain an understanding of how their behavior changes over time in response to Blue.
“Success will be measured through reduced wildlife presence within exclusion zones, fewer emergency wildlife callouts, fewer hazardous human-wildlife interactions, and changes in wildlife movement and habitat use,” the NPS explained.
Visitors also have a part to play in this effort. It’s important not to approach, feed, or move wildlife.
