AUSTIN, Texas — Some four-legged creatures are making their way to Central Texas for a good cause.
On Oct. 16, bee advocate Jacqueline Staab and her two German shorthaired pointers, Gerty and Jane, are coming to Austin.
The trio will be demonstrating the dogs' abilities to locate bumblebees often found in the ground or nests -including the endangered variable cuckoo bumblebee- as part of the Texas Parks & Wildlife Foundations' (TPWF) Pollinators & Prairies program.
Staab hopes to gather new information about bumblebee environments and possible dangers they face in the wild.
What is Darwin's Bee Dogs?
The ecologist created Darwin's Bee Dogs to try and learn more about bumblebee habitats.
After finding inspiration from a previous attempt in Great Britain, Staab decided to try and train a bee-seeking dog of her own.
"I jumped at the opportunity and decided to make training and deploying detection K-9s to conserve and research bees my master's project, and, ultimately, my career and life's mission," Staab told the TPWF.
With a goal in mind, Staab began training Darwin, a German shorthaired pointer who became the name behind the organization.
For two years, Darwin learned to locate bumblebees, becoming the first-ever dog in the United States to do so.
"In addition to helping us gain invaluable new information about bumblebee nesting ecology, he also served as an ambassador for native bees and brought a lot of attention to their cause," Staab said.
Now, Gerty and Jane are carrying on Darwin's legacy.
You can see the dogs at work at 6:30 p.m. on Oct. 16 at the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center, 4801 La Crosse Ave.
