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The bark beetle is the most dangerous pest in the domestic forestry industry. Due to climate change, it is spreading ever faster and causing great damage. A trained nose should help!
Climate change is causing milder temperatures, longer periods of drought and more frequent extreme weather events. As a result, trees are being weakened. The beneficiary is the highly problematic pest bark beetle, which is spreading rapidly and can cause entire areas of forest to die. This situation requires intensive bark beetle monitoring, which places a heavy burden on the capacity of forestry operations. In order to preserve the protective forests, Antonin Hugentobler, district forester of Scuol, took the initiative and came up with an original tool: a dog's sniffer nose.
Based on scientific studies and practical experience, Antonin Hugentobler believes in the delicate nose of four-legged friends. He and Marie-Sarah Beuchat, dog trainer of a species detection dog team, have developed a training program together. The basic training lasts between three and six months. Zino, a forest dog, is the first "sniffer of the canton of Graubünden" in training. He works with pheromones. Insects use these scents to communicate with each other. Zino learns to signal to his master as soon as he detects these scents. The dog's talent and the handler's experience are key. The use of sniffer dogs can improve the situation for the mountain forest, as the dog detects the beetle infestation much earlier than is possible with previous detection methods. All hopes are now pinned on Zino!
