UK's first conservation detection dog to protect rare birds by sniffing out rats
Meet the dog on a mission to protect some of Britain's rarest birds. Red cocker spaniel Jinx is using his powerful sense of smell to sniff out rats blamed for decimating seabird populations on the tiny islands that lie off the Welsh coast.
The three-year-old will counter the threat faced by species including Puffins, Kittiwakes, Black-headed gulls and Arctic Terns from brown rats that prey on their eggs and chicks, and even attack adult birds.
Jinx, the UK's first ever conservation detection dog, has been training with the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds for the last two years. But he won't be expected to catch the rats, just sniff them out.
The three-year-old spaniel has been training with the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (WELSH GOVERMENT)And he could be very busy, as a single pregnant rat can produce a colony of more than 300 in just eight months.
He will also be used to search for rats in cargo destined for the islands, which include Skomer, off Pembrokeshire, where more than half of the world's Manx shearwater nest underground in burrows away from invasive predators, including rats.
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Emily Williams, senior marine policy officer with RSPB Cymru, said: "He's trained to identify rat scent. He's really adept at being able to identify where rats are located.
"If he identifies the presence of a rat we can deal with it really quickly. If we don't, rats reproduce very quickly and you have a serious problem. We deal with the rats – he tells us if there are any."
Pet pic
This hilarious clip of Noodle the dachshund giving his owner the 'side eye' has gone viral on TikTok.
Tilde Anderson was watching Loose Women with Noodle at home in Manchester, when the panel started discussing a new survey of dog behaviour, which revealed that pooches 'judge' humans.
That was when Noodle gave Tilde this particularly judgmental glance.
"Feel like someone in this room might have been part of the survey," she says in the video on @noodleandtilde, which has now been liked more than two million times online.
Daily Mirror's Pet ClubDid you know?
Did you know the Vikings who invaded Britain in the Middle Ages were probably pet lovers like us? New research has found that Norsemen brought their own dogs and horses with them on their raids.
The discovery came when human and animal remains from Britain's only known Viking cremation cemetery were uncovered at Heath Wood in Derbyshire.
Professor Julian Richards from the University of York, said: "It shows how much Viking leaders valued their personal horses and hounds that they brought them from Scandinavia, and that the animals were buried with their owners."
Story time
This four-week-old kitten was spotted on a conveyor belt at J&B Recycling and aptly named JBA kitten who was rescued from heavy machinery has been named after the recycling plant where the miracle escape happened.
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JB was four-weeks-old when staff at J&B Recycling in Hartlepool spotted her on a conveyor belt, after she had already passed through two processing machines.
It is believed she ended up at the plant after being left in a bin.
The firm's Ingrid Brough-Williams adopted her and nursed her back to health after an operation to amputate a paw which was badly injured during her ordeal.
Ingrid said: "She was tiny, dehydrated and in a bad way. The vets said her chances of survival weren't great.
"My kids got involved to help feed her every hour for about six weeks. She has three legs and hops around but she's absolutely thriving."
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