The dog that saves koalas from bushfires

Meet Bear, a sniffer dog on a mission to rescue koalas in trouble.

The border collie, Australian cattle dog cross is part of a team trained to find koalas threatened by bush fires in Australia.

Romane Cristescu is founder of Detection Dogs for Conservation, which owns Bear.

"I talk to wildlife rescue groups that are on the ground and they are checking whether any koala population is affected and if any population is at risk. Then we will jump in a car and go and help them."

Last year, about 6000 koalas were killed in Australia's worst summer of fires in decades.

Bear and his companions were able to save more than 100.

Now, Bear is back - focused mainly on the northern state of Queensland.

"So we currently have four detection dogs and they all have their speciality. So they're all different. We have two who are trained for habitat, so that enabled us to map where koalas live. We've got one that is trained for genetic, so she collects or she helped us collect samples that we then bring for molecular analysis and then we have bear, who is our koala detection dog."

It's tough work. Last year, more than 37 million acres of bushland were burnt. 33 people died, along with billions of native animals.

Authorities expect a cooler, rainier spring for most of the country this year.

But if the fires do return - Bear and his team are ready to save as many koalas as they can.