Focus on species protection

Animal detectives with a feared sense of smell

Conservation dogs are trained in cooperation with the Schönbrunn Zoo in Vienna.

(Bild: Krone KREATIV/Zwefo, Martin Jöchl)

They go by the names "Dobby" and "Falco". Their place of work is Vienna International Airport, and their sensitive sense of smell is more efficient than any X-ray machine. Whether snake, chameleon, exotic birds or spiders - two German shorthaired dogs sniff out everything for customs. The "Krone" was present during the training of the species protection sniffer dogs at Schönbrunn Zoo.

With up to 300 million olfactory sensory cells, dogs easily outperform the human nose. There is almost nothing that dogs cannot smell: Drugs, explosives, truffles - even diabetes or malaria. The dog's nose is supported by its olfactory brain, where the information arriving from the nose is processed. This can involve up to fifteen thousand different odor images per minute. Humans manage less than four in the same time.