STORY AND PHOTOS BY KAREN BOSSICK
Detective dogs will kick off the ERC’s 4th annual Spring Science Series on Wednesday, April 17.
Pete Coppolillo, executive director of Working Dogs for Conservation, will lead a presentation and demonstration about conservation dogs from 6 to 7 p.m. at Mountain Humane at 100 Croy Creek Road in Hailey.
The free program is suitable for families.
WD4C, which has made a couple presentations over the past few years in the Wood River Valley, is the world’s leading conservation detection dog organization.
The organization even adopted a local Labrador retriever from Mountain Humane, or what was then the Animal Shelter of the Wood River Valley, a couple years ago. The dog was then trained to sniff out such things as invasive mollusks and animal poachers and put to work.
The organization is currently working on invasive species detection and eradication, animal poaching and trafficking prevention and habitat mapping and monitoring of such animals as rare elephants.
The Spring Science Series is offered in conjunction with the ERC’s Spring Exploration Series, which brings presenters from across the Northwest to talk to more than 500 second- and third-graders in Blaine County during the school day. The presenters then offer evening programs for the public.
The free programs start at 6 p.m. All but the dog program will be held at Ketchum’s Community Library.
The upcoming Spring Science Series presentations:
- April 24—Hester Mallonee of Craters of the Moon National Monument and Preserve will present a program on volcanism and planetary geology, showing how Craters of the Moon is similar to other planets.
- May 1-The Peregrine Fund of Boise will bring live raptors to The Community Library in a program looking at the life cycles of raptors.
- May 8—Zoo Idaho of Pocatello will bring live animals in a program focusing on animal adaptations.
The Spring Science Series is supported by Hotel Ketchum, Mountain Humane, The Community Library and the Donald W. and Gretchen K. Fraser Fund in the Idaho Community Foundation.