Meet the Dog With a Nose for Keeping British Columbia Free of Invasive Mussels

Destructive mollusks threaten the Canadian province’s waterways but K9 Kilo and his handler are on the case.


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AT FIRST GLANCE, THE BOAT stopped at a highway checkpoint near Golden, British Columbia, was unremarkable. The smooth, brightly painted hull was scrubbed clean, with nothing to tip off the conservation officers checking the craft for clumps of invasive mussels that anything was amiss.

Kilo—the team’s invasive species detection dog—wasn’t so sure. After a quick sniff and a glance back at his master, the black-haired German shepherd sat down and stared at the boat. It was a sure sign that a mussel was hiding somewhere in the machine, said Sgt. Josh Lockwood, a recently retired B.C. conservation officer and Kilo’s first handler.



Zebra and quagga mussels are small freshwater mussels originally from the Black and Caspian seas. First seen in North American lakes and rivers in the 1980s, they were probably imported by ships dumping their ballast water into the Great Lakes. The mollusks rapidly took hold, growing on everything from irrigation lines to hydroelectric dams, and spread around waterways from the Eastern Seaboard and Ontario to California via contaminated boats.

Only waterways in B.C. and a handful of other western provinces, territories, and U.S. states remain unscathed. Keeping them out is a full-time job for Kilo, his fellow canine mussel-detection partner Major, and about 45 conservation officers scattered throughout B.C.


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https://www.atlasobscura.com/article...rvation-canada