When it comes to smell and hearing, dogs are among the most perceptive of all God’s creatures. But they’re not just herders, helpers, bodyguards, and companions for people. Clever canines are creating a buzz by helping to save bees and protect platypuses.
Pollinator populations have been declining for years. Diseases, insecticides, weather, and food shortages are mostly to blame. Now researchers at Michigan State University are enlisting dogs to sniff out one specific honeybee threat.
Longtime handler Sue Stejskal trains dogs for law enforcement and other uses. When a spaniel named Maple retired, Stejskal set about teaching the old dog a new trick.
Maple used to locate human remains for the police. She retired in 2024 after an injury on the job. Soon, Maple began sniffing around insects.
The Pollinator Performance Center trains dogs to use their sensitive snouts to identify American foulbrood, a disease threatening honeybees.
Bee stings happen—even to dogs. So Maple wears a yellow protective suit, including a veil and booties, while on the job.
Stejskal recognizes the importance of the work she and Maple do. She’s also thrilled that Maple has a new purpose: “I was over-the-moon excited because my dog . . . would still be able to work.”
Half a world away, another dog posse puts God-given super-smellers to work too. So-called “paddle pups” help researchers study Australia’s platypuses.
Balancing atop paddleboards, dogs help scientists locate and monitor platypuses—by smelling through water.
Healesville, Victoria, wildlife detection dog officer La Toya Jamieson says canines take well to paddleboards. They quickly figure out “how to maneuver themselves around a paddleboard in order to detect the platypus,” Jamieson says.
Platypus expert Jessica Thomas says scientists know relatively little about platypuses. She calls the odd-looking animals “very cryptic,” or mysterious. Underground, underwater, and nocturnal, “they’re quite challenging just to observe, let alone study.” She adds that no one has yet observed a platypus laying an egg.
The aim of paddle pups was discovering more about how platypuses live in the wild. Platypuses often burrow along banks in dense brush or even underwater. They’re hard to spot!
Paddleboards allow researchers to be on the water and near the platypuses with less disruption to the animals’ home turf—er, water.
Despite their highly successful avoidance instincts, the flat-billed animals are no match for paddle pups. Thomas says the dogs’ “sense of smell is so acute that they’re actually able to detect a platypus while it’s asleep in its burrow.”
Why? God designed animals with amazing and varied purposes. The gifts He imparts—like dogs’ superior intelligence and keen senses—allow animals both to serve humanity and help other creatures.
Recommended Reading: For more about clever canines, read The Eyes and the Impossible by Dave Eggers.
