If I’m honest, I’d probably lay down my life for most animals if, say, they were drowning. Even if a human being was drowning too – animals are just better than people. But I would absolutely, definitely do so for Bear, the koala-rescuing doggie.
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Bear has been assisting rescue teams on the Sunshine Coast with finding injured koalas who are victims of the bushfire crisis, and to do so he has to wear SPECIAL TEENY FIRE PROTECTIVE BOOTIES OH MY GOD.
Bear works for Detection Dogs For Conservation, a program run by the University of Sunshine Coast. He ended up with them after basically destroying his previous owner’s apartment because he was MEANT FOR MORE, clearly. He’s not a regular dog he’s an important dog with a job.
Turns out he is a brilliant koala tracker – he’s the only dog trained to track live koalas, not just droppings, because he is extremely talented and brilliant.
Bear is an Australian Koolie, and it’s just the most wonderful story of doggie redemption because as Dr Romane Cristescu from University of Sunshine Coast explained to 9 News, a lot of these types of talented pups end up in the pound due to their boredom in normal pet ownership situations.
“The dog’s nose is incredibly good at looking at the picture of a scene and identifying every part of that picture,” Dr Cristescu said. “Finding Bear was very lucky for us and for him. He is obsessed with playing all day long, and we want to be collecting data all day long.”
She explained that Bear is used less during research trips, but in natural disasters his skills are integral.
“…when a natural disaster happens like these fires what we want is to find an animal, not scat, so we can find any that may possibly have injuries,” she said.
Bear has since gone viral because a) CUTENESS and b) GOOD BOY, with stories appearing on CNN and The Independent.
Honestly, we don’t deserve Bear.
