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Candice Gaukel Andrews

Environmental Quality Control: Animal Detectives

Responsible Travel Report Blog

Environmental Quality Control: Animal Detectives

Wednesday, 23 February 2011 Posted by Candice Gaukel Andrews Category STI Blog 0 comment

The fictional Ace Ventura may be tops when it comes to pet detectives, but the real animal gumshoes are those of the nonhuman sort. More and more, we are recognizing the incredible powers of observation and deduction our fellow creatures possess and are using them to help us discover what’s going on in our environments.

For example, honeybees have found recent employment at eight German airports, where they monitor air quality. Emissions from planes, as well as from automobile traffic near the terminals, can lower air quality, potentially harming wildlife and residents in the surrounding neighborhoods. It turns out that any substance found in the bees’ honey, such as heavy metals, is an early indication that there are pollutants present in the environs. Countermeasures can then be taken.  

So far, however, the German bees’ honey has not contained any contaminants or toxins, and it is pure enough to eat. In addition, the bees’ ability to smell explosives has led many bomb squads to put this particular talent to good use.

Mosquitoes and animals are routinely used as West Nile virus detectors. An area can be sampled for the presence of the disease by pooling trapped mosquitoes and testing them for the virus; by examining blood samples drawn from a region’s birds, dogs, or monkeys; and by checking the brains of dead birds found by animal control agency representatives and the public.

And, in fact, just a few months ago in Salem, Massachusetts, dogs were used to sniff out bedbugs that had infiltrated thirty-eight apartments in an elderly housing complex.

Of course, the classic example of animals serving us as early-warning sentinels is the canary in the coal mine. Well into the twentieth century in the United States and in the United Kingdom, coal miners took the birds into the mines as biomonitors for toxic gases, including methane and carbon monoxide. Because canaries are highly sensitive, they would become ill before the miners showed any symptoms, providing them with a chance to escape or put on protective respirators.

Given the many ways that nonhuman fauna benefit us — even work for us — I was thrilled when I recently heard about a call for a united approach to human and animal medicine titled the One Health Initiative. According to its website, One Health is “a worldwide strategy for expanding interdisciplinary collaborations and communications in all aspects of health care for humans, animals, and the environment.” It recognizes that disease events in nonhuman species may indicate human health risks, and — even more importantly from my perspective — it aims to cut across species barriers to improve health for all living beings.

Sustainable Travel International includes among its partners many organizations concerned with green lodging and the quality of your environment while traveling. Along with that concern is our respect for wildlife. It seems to me, then, that if our fellow creatures are going to use their innate knowledge and skills to help us make sure our air, water, workplaces, hotels, and homes stay as healthy and green as possible, we should reciprocate by including them in any efforts we make to improve human health and health care.

Word from the wild,

Candy

Tags: canaries in the coal mines, toxin detection, human healthcare, One Health Initiative, dogs and bedbugs, mosquitoes and West Nile virus detectors, bee honey, honeybees monitoring air quality, honeybees at airports, honeybees

About the author

Candice Gaukel Andrews

An author and writer specializing in nature and travel topics, Candice’s assignments have taken her as far as Alaska and the Yukon Quest dogsled race — and as close to her Wisconsin home as the national snow-sculpting competition in Lake Geneva. A former scriptwriter for Paramount Pictures in Hollywood, California, Candice gave up the big city life to return to her roots — and winter — in the Heartland. Her books include Great Wisconsin Winter Weekends (Trails Books, 2006), The Minnesota Almanac (Trails Books, 2008), and Beyond the Trees: Stories of Wisconsin Forests (Wisconsin Historical Society Press, 2011). She is a web columnist for several nature and ecotourism publications, such as Gaiam Life, Good Nature, and The Adventure Corner; and she is the editor of the e-book An Adventurous Nature: Tales from Natural Habitat Adventures (2011), a collection of worldwide nature, travel, and adventure stories.

Her fascination with animals began in first grade, when her family adopted a tiny Chihuahua. As she grew, so did her pets; and today, she’s rarely seen without one or two seventy-pound greyhounds by her side — unless you happen to catch her “out there,” searching for polar bears, grizzlies, or Spirit Bears.

Candice is currently working on her fifth book, Travel Wild Wisconsin, to be published by the University of Wisconsin Press. Visit her website at www.candiceandrews.com.

http://www.candiceandrews.com/