{"id":43899,"date":"2024-11-19T15:56:39","date_gmt":"2024-11-19T14:56:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/01121db9-5f81-4fae-8bd2-9312b793ac74"},"modified":"2024-11-19T17:27:27","modified_gmt":"2024-11-19T16:27:27","slug":"two-dogs-were-just-sent-to-a-remote-archipelago-on-the-edge-of-the-atlantic-ocean-with-one-vital-job","status":"publish","type":"rss_feed","link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcwildlife\/rss_feed\/two-dogs-were-just-sent-to-a-remote-archipelago-on-the-edge-of-the-atlantic-ocean-with-one-vital-job\/","title":{"rendered":"Two dogs were just sent to a remote archipelago on the edge of the Atlantic Ocean \u2013 with one vital job"},"content":{"rendered":"

They were there to help prevent an ecological disaster. <\/p>

By <\/p>

Published: Tuesday, 19 November 2024 at 14:56 PM<\/p>

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A springer spaniel and a black labrador are part of a team that is successfully removing stoats from the Orkney Islands as part of a project to help its wildlife \u2013 especially ground-nesting birds and rare rodents \u2013 recover.<\/strong><\/p>

The dogs\u2019 remarkable sense of smell has been the key attribute as conservationists from the Orkney Native Wildlife Project<\/a> (ONWP) have successfully tracked down and removed more than 6,500 of the small predators, which are not native to the Scottish archipelago.<\/p>

The weasel-related carnivores arrived in Orkney in around 2010 \u2013 it\u2019s not known exactly how or from where.<\/p>

Short-eared owls are one of several species predated upon by the islands’ stoats\/RSPB Images <\/figcaption> <\/figure>

The islands are a haven for ground-nesting birds, including hen harriers and waders such as curlews<\/a>, lapwings and oystercatchers<\/a>, partly because there are no native terrestrial mammalian predators. The stoats were impacting these birds\u2019 reproductive success rates.\u00a0<\/p>