Dogs on the trail of SA’s endangered tortoises

SNOUT pressed to the ground, a border collie named Delta zigzagged through the shrubs on a private nature reserve near Cape Town, frantically sniffing for critically endangered tortoises.

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The dog stopped abruptly in front of a small bush and lay down, signalling a find as Delta’s handler moved in to search the surrounding area.

Hidden in the tall grass was a tiny reptile, its shell marked with yellow star-like patterns — a clear sign it was a geometric tortoise, a species found only at the southern tip of Africa.

“It's an adult female, you can tell by its flat belly,” said Esther Matthew, the dog’s handler and a conservation officer for South Africa’s Endangered Wildlife Trust. She explained that the organisation uses canines to sniff out the endangered species by “building positive association with the tortoises’ odour”, throwing Delta a foam frisbee as a reward. Dogs are five times more effective than humans at this type of search and “also help us find the smaller tortoises which are often overlooked, the hatchlings and the juveniles”, Matthew said.