“Sniffer dogs are emerging as the secret weapon of Indian wildlife authorities,” says Nitin Desai, director (Central India) at WPSI. Only when a sniffer dog arrived did investigators discover tiny bones near the washing area. Since 2008, WWF-India (the World Wide Fund for Nature-India) has trained more than 120 wildlife sniffer dog squads, each comprising a dog and two handlers. “Today, it would be very difficult for us to curb wildlife poaching without sniffer dogs,” says Prabhu Nath Shukla, field director of Tadoba-Andhari Tiger Reserve. A 2024 review found that wildlife sniffer dogs are generally able to search larger areas, locate more suspicious wildlife products and work faster than humans.