People and dogs team up to protect sea turtles in Cabo Verde

“This picture was taken in August 2024 during a dog-training demonstration run by the Turtle Foundation, a non-governmental organization in Sal Rei in the Cabo Verde islands that is dedicated to sea-turtle conservation. I’m with Karetta, a five-year-old German Shepherd that I train and work with on the island of Boa Vista. The dogs help us to look for turtle poachers, who operate on this beach during hatching season. The illegal hunters usually leave something behind — a piece of clothing, or even a footprint. The dog can smell that evidence and lead law-enforcement officers to the poacher. I’ve always loved dogs, I grew up with two of them, but I never realized how smart they are before working as a dog trainer and handler.

In the past, it was common to consume turtle meat in Cabo Verde. But in 1987, Cabo Verde passed a law that prevented the hunting and consumption of loggerhead sea turtles (Caretta caretta). In 2007, before we started our project here, 1,256 turtles were poached on Boa Vista. In 2024, only 20 were poached, demonstrating the huge impact of our conservation efforts.

Besides sniffing out poachers on the beaches, our dogs can also detect turtle meat, so can be used to identify its illegal transportation or sale.

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Nature 641, 1064 (2025)

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-025-01554-6

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

This story originally appeared on: Nature - Author:Patricia Noraha