Mysterious Bush Dogs to Be Bred

One thing I've learned in getting to work as a freelance blogger for NatGeo: Scientists are fun to talk to.

Seriously. When I started I was very intimated and worried that having talk to scientists was going to be intimidating, that I would be able to feel the absence of all the brain cells I've killed with cocktails and junk TV, that they would make the empty spaces in my head obvious, like when breath howls through a conch shell.

Nothing could be further from the truth. People who are enthusiastic and joyful about their jobs are always fun to talk to and scientists love to talk about their jobs. One of the most animated was Karen DeMatteo, a NatGeo grantee and biologist at the Washington State University in St. Louis and the St. Louis Zoo WildCare Institute. And no wonder - part of her job is working with Train, a "conservation dog," whose job it to sniff out the elusive bush dog, an animal so good at not being seen by humans that most people you ask won't know what is.

To see for yourself and find out more about these mysterious animals and the Train - a dog helping other dogs - click for my post here: Mysterious Bush Dogs To Be Bred: Behind the Elusive Species.

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