Hard Working Animals

Bedbug-sniffing dogs

The dogs are known for their sniffing, as they can smell way more than us humans can. In case you did not know, the bedbugs are a serious problem, as they have infested lots of cities. They do not transmit diseases, but they bite, and their bite can be very bad. They are very tiny, and it is very difficult to know that they are there. Luckily, the dogs can be trained to sniff them, and to identify the beds which are populated by these creatures. The dogs are 96 percent accurate at this job, and they can even identify the beds which are infested by a single bedbug. That is a good way of taking care of the problem.

Bomb-sniffing bees

The dogs are not the only animals that have a very powerful sense of smell. The bees have this quality as well. The bees follow their antennae, which is the place where their smell receptors are placed, in order to find food. They also rely on pheromones, which are smelly chemicals in order to communicate. The British company Inscentinel, Ltd stated that because of these qualities the bees are excellent at detecting bombs. They train the bees to detect the smells of TNT and various chemicals used in bombs, and when they do, they reward the bees with sugar water. The bees are very successful at it, and once they have identified the problem, they are freed to go back to the hive.

Mine-sweeping dolphins

Flipper has been used by many years now by the U.S Navy in order to identify the underwater mines. The dolphins can swim at great depths, they can hold their breath for very long time, and they can swim in murky waters. The Navy has also used them for recovering equipment from the bottom of the ocean, for locating intruders, and suspicious items. The main quality of the dolphins is that they can use echolocation in order to “see” the objects. Because of this quality, they can detect things even in sediment-rich waters.

Patrol Llamas

You have to admit that the llamas look very ridiculous. They have pointy ears, big eyes, and long eyelashes. They look like a caricature of a different animal. Despite their ridiculous look, the lamas are very effective at patrolling. They can be used to guard the flocks of goats and sheep. As soon as they see a coyote or a different predator they start the alarm making very loud noises. It has been discovered that when the llamas were introduced for guarding the flocks, the sheep producers went from losing 11 percent to just 1 percent. 80 percent of the U.S farmers consider the llamas to be very effective, as they can reduce the coyote attacks. Many llama owners have stated that the llamas have shown affection towards the baby sheep, and this is why they guard them so effective.

Fishing Cormorants

Even if this sounds strange, in case you did not know, the cormorants are some of the most effective fishermen in the world. They can dive in the water and they can scoop the fish using their long beaks. They are mostly used in China and Japan, and the fishing often occurs during the night. The people carry torches with them which they light in order to attract the fish.  The fishermen tie a snare around the base of the cormorant’s neck so that the birds will not be able to swallow the large fish. Not too many people use them for fishing, but most of them use them as tourist attraction, as the event is very spectacular.

Truffle-hunting Pigs

In case you did not know, the truffles are a certain type of fungi that grow underground near the roots of the trees. It can be very difficult to find out where they are. They are very expensive, as one pound can cost up to $1.000. One Macau businessman paid $330,000 for 1.5 kilograms of a certain kind of truffles. The best way of finding these expensive fungi without cutting down the trees would be to train pigs to find them. Only the female pigs can detect them, as the truffles release a scent similar to the one of male pigs. The problem is that the pigs can eat them when they find them, and this is why more and more people are starting to use dogs for this task.

Therapy Horses

There are many rehabilitation programs which use the animals in the task of treating the people from certain disorders. The animals have a certain feeling of calmness, and that can be mostly said about the horses. Horses are great at treating certain physical injuries as well, such as spinal cord ones or motor diseases. The process of using horses in order to treat the humans is called hippotherapy. The children who suffer from autism can benefit from this treatment as well as the process of feeding them and brushing them can be very rewarding. It has been discovered that the children who were involved in a 12-week horse therapy program became more social and less distractible as the children who did not participate.

Disease-sniffing Dogs

As I previously mentioned, the dogs have a great sniffing ability. They can even sniff certain diseases, such as cancer, which gives off tiny amounts of chemicals called alkanes and benzenes. A clinic from California discovered the fact that the dogs could be used in order to discover the lung cancer with 99 percent accuracy. They also have the ability of detecting breast cancer with 88 percent accuracy which means that they are just as accurate as a mammogram.

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