Photo credit: Luigi Avantaggiato. © Nature, 2025. Source
This picture was taken in August 2024 during a dog-training demonstration run by the Turtle Foundation, a non-governmental organization in Sal Rei in the Cabo Verde islands that is dedicated to sea-turtle conservation. I’m with Karetta, a five-year-old German Shepherd that I train and work with on the island of Boa Vista. The dogs help us to look for turtle poachers, who operate on this beach during hatching season. The illegal hunters usually leave something behind — a piece of clothing, or even a footprint. The dog can smell that evidence and lead law-enforcement officers to the poacher. I’ve always loved dogs, I grew up with two of them, but I never realized how smart they are before working as a dog trainer and handler.