Meditando

Douglas Gordon

hace unos años

For the past few months a beagle puppy nicknamed "Python Pete" has been training to sniff out giant snakes in Florida's Everglades National Park, a big swampy grassland. Because beagles are small, friendly, and able to detect different odors, they make good detector dogs. Pete's owner is Lori Oberhofer, a wildlife researcher at the park. She trains Python Pete to track down the snakes and to bark after he has spotted them. That way, park officials can remove the snakes. The snakes Pete will look for are Burmese pythons. The Burmese python is one of world's largest snakes and has become a popular pet. The snakes can grow 15 feet (5 meters) long. Because they get so big, some owners get rid of the snakes by releasing them around South Florida. The pythons are now taking over the Everglades. To train Python Pete, Lori Oberhofer places a live python in a net bag and drags it 50 feet (15 meters) to establish a scent trail. When Pete is ready, he is brought on a leash to the start of the scent trail. There, he picks up on the scent of the snake and leads Lori toward it. Pete is kept on a leash so that he won't become python lunch. So far Python Pete is doing very well in his training. Park workers hope to use his sniffing skills to catch the pythons starting in a few months.

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