The recent decline of bumblebees has scientists buzzing for an answer. Is it cell phones? global warming? apathy? The tricky thing, however, is that before they can study them, they have to find them. The bumblebee nests have shrunk to an alarming 100-150 bees, a hive hard to find by simply monitoring traffic. And thats where Toby comes in.
Toby is a three year old Springer spaniel with an incredible nose. He was trained at an army dog-training school to sniff out explosives after being found abandoned as a puppy. Now, experts at the University of Stirling in Scotland have successfully trained Toby to find the bees’ nests, hidden in dense undergrowth or in the ground with his sensitive nose.
He is the only scout of his kind. Toby and handler Steph O’Connor are sponsored by the Bumblebee Conservation Trust, a charity set up in 2006 to investigate and halt the insect’s decline.
