Meet the pup helping to detect Northumberland wildlife

Goose is the latest recruit at Northumberland Wildlife Trust, bringing a 'helping nose' to the charity's efforts in monitoring water vole populations across the region's waterways.

The young pup is owned by Ellesse Janda and Tony Nellis, with Ms Janda also serving as the trust's lead volunteer and freelance social science consultant.

After spending four months with Northumberland Wildlife Trust and Forestry England, Ms Janda recognised the challenges of surveying water voles in Kielder's ever-changing habitats and rising water levels.

This is where Goose's keen sense of smell comes into play.

While scent-trained dogs have traditionally been employed in roles such as detecting contraband, explosives, and medical conditions, their potential in conservation work is now being realised.

17-week-old Goose is undergoing training (Image: Tony Nellis Photography)

Dogs like Goose are being trained to detect and follow the scent of certain animals, providing conservationists with a more accurate picture in 'significantly less time'.

Goose is currently honing his sniffing abilities with specialist trainers and will undergo further training with LANTRA to become accredited in conservation dog detecting and handling.

He will then join fellow volunteers for the 2025 survey season, contributing to the accuracy of water vole population estimates and aiding data collation for the Restoring Ratty project and future reintroduction projects.

Goose's skills will also be put to use in detecting pine martens, one of the UK’s rarest carnivores, as part of a large-scale survey across the north of England.

Goose will help to sniff out wildlife (Image: Tony Nellis Photography) Ms Janda said: "Wildlife detection dogs are amazing and have also been used to sniff out any number of animals including bats, squirrels, and birds.

"They have even been used to sniff out invasive plants.

"It’s baby steps for Goose, but who knows what other species he’ll add to his sniffing list in the future - it’s very much up to him.

"At the moment, he’s just loving the attention from his fellow volunteers."

Goose's efforts will help measure the success and longevity of the Restoring Ratty water vole reintroduction project, which saw more than 2,000 captively bred voles released into the North Tyne catchment area.