Splash the otter is making a splash in the search and rescue world. Photo: Peace River K9 Search and Rescue//Instagram
Peace River K9 Search and Rescue, a Southwest Florida-based non-profit, has an unlikely new team member: an otter named Splash.
Splash, of course, isn’t a canine, but when it comes to finding missing people, dogs have a hard time following a scent underwater. Mike Hadsell, a member of the Peace River K9 Search and Rescue team, thought that maybe, just maybe, they could teach a new otter an old dog’s tricks.
“The saying was that the investigation ends at the water’s edge,” Hadsell said to WTSP, a local Tampa news outlet. “I thought, why can’t we train an otter to do this kind of work… if they’ll work with us.”
When he put his idea out to the online world, someone from the Arizona Zoo thought they might have a good candidate: Splash, an Asian small-clawed otter. Hadsell decided he’d give it a shot and spent the next year training the little guy to follow smells through water. Using kiddie pools and the scent of human remains, Splash proved to be remarkably adept at his new calling.
“Splash is trained to locate and identify the odor of human remains. So, his job is to find the human victim underwater in the low visibility conditions that we can’t see them,” Hadsell explained. “You’ll see all these bubbles coming out, and he’s sucking some of those bubbles back in, and he’s tasting them. The odor attaches itself to the bubble, and then he tastes it when it comes into his mouth. That’s how he does it. When he finds something, he comes back and he grabs my mask.”
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Now that Splash has literally graduated from the kiddie pool, he’s working in some of Florida’s murky waterways. It’s not exactly safe for him — especially since he wears a tether that’s attached somewhere on shore — but his handlers keep a close eye on him. Alligators, according to Hadsell, are the biggest worry, but his success is making people sit up and take notice. With three successful search missions, both the FBI and the Florida Department of Law Enforcement are tracking the animal’s results.
“I think they’ll be standard issue probably in 10 years from now,” Hadsell said.
