Toads beware: replacement Nifty is near

The Department of Environment and Conservation is close to recruiting a new cane toad detecting dog to be based in Kununurra.

The new dog, likely to be a kelpie, will replace “Nifty” the female Belgian malinois, who was forced into early retirement in 2011 because of the intense Kimberley heat.

State Cane Toad Initiative program co-ordinator Corrin Everitt said Nifty had done most of her work before cane toads had infiltrated WA.

Ms Everitt said the new dog would have a slightly different role and would hopefully be in the region and at work in April.

“We are looking for a suitable person to do the job and work with the new dog, it’s not something that everyone is good at,” she said. “What we used Nifty for was field work with Stop the Toads and checked there weren’t any toads in the area once they had done a bust.”

“Now that we have toads in the East Kimberley obviously one of the high risk areas is toads travelling from this area in produce and freight.”

Ms Everitt said the DEC with the Department of Agriculture and Food had mapped out a pathway analysis of how toads are arriving in Perth and in what types of freight.

She said the new dog would be deployed to Perth when required to inspect high priority freight.

“For example we had a hitchhiker (toad) turn up at the Canningvale Markets last year and now with the dog we would send her down immediately to be involved in the follow-up work,” she said.