🐨 Bear
Dog (Australian Koolie) · Sunshine Coast, Queensland, Australia
Lives in Forest Hollow
Bear is an Australian koolie who was bought from a pet shop, proved far too intense for a Gold Coast apartment, and was given up in 2016 after chewing through its walls. The University of the Sunshine Coast's Detection Dogs for Conservation programme, working with IFAW, retrained that obsessiveness and taught him the scent of live koala fur rather than droppings — a first in Australia. During the 2019-20 Black Summer bushfires he located more than 100 koalas in burnt ground while wearing red boots against the hot earth, and the footage reached an audience that included Tom Hanks and Leonardo DiCaprio. IFAW retired him on 20 March 2026 after a decade, and a search is now on for his successor.
What they do
Casts back and forth with his nose in the air, then drops flat to the ground at the base of a tree and stares straight up at the branches. Three frames: standing sniff, nose swung to the trunk, belly-flat with head tilted up..
Was a nightmare pet and is a genius at work. Does not care about koalas at all — he cares about the ball he gets afterwards.
Lore
- ★He was trained on live koala fur, not scat, which let him find animals that needed vets rather than just mapping populations.
- ★His trained alert is to lie down at the base of the tree the koala is in.
- ★The red protective booties he wore over scorched ground became his signature.
- ★IFAW named him Animal of the Year, and he also took Puppy Tales' Australian Dog of the Year.
Helping the real one
💛 Support Bear via IFAW (International Fund for Animal Welfare)Bear worked his whole career for IFAW alongside the University of the Sunshine Coast's Detection Dogs for Conservation. IFAW's donate page was live when fetched and funds its rescue and conservation work worldwide; it is a general fund, not a Bear-specific appeal. This opens their own official page. Money never touches this site.
Where this comes from
- IFAW Hero koala detection dog Bear retires after a decade of service ↗
- Taipei Times (AFP) 'Hero' Australian dog who saved 100 koalas retires ↗
- Australian Geographic Meet Bear, the koala detection dog ↗
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