Posted on 06/11/2002 4:44:09 PM PDT by Shermy
AB Moscow's Sheremetyevo airport has for several months been quietly running a unique experiment in which passenger security is entrusted to, along with humans, a hybrid of dog and jackal. Our reporter went to the airport to take a closer look at the experiment
Experts say the dog's sense of smell is 50 times as good as man's. This is of course an average estimate, but the fact remains: The dog has a superior nose compared to the human one.
Today the danger of terrorist attacks made this quality highly important. There are dogs specially trained for bomb-sniffing. Still, people continue to work on breeding species with an even more acute sense of smell.
Klim Sulimov runs one such program in Russia. In the mid-1970s, he launched an experiment to crossbreed Siberian huskies with jackals. The resultant hybrid is said to have much keener scent than dogs. The sense of smell is just a first step. The success of this experiment could enable man to make further progress in creating animals with a pre-designed set of characteristics.
Seventeen of these hybrids are already in service with Russia's flagship carrier, Aeroflot, at both of the Sheremetyevo airport terminals. At some point service officials realized that it was necessary to have their own animals rather than wait, in an emergency, for Interior Ministry handlers to arrive with their dogs, closing the airport for hours.
Azat Zaripov, head of the air security service at the Aeroflot joint-stock company, believes that sometimes they work better than ordinary dogs and have considerable advantages over the latter: They are less fickle and are capable of excellent teamwork. They are used to detect bombs and other terrorist tools, protecting airplanes and passengers.
The crossbreeding of two animals that live in utterly different climatic conditions produced a species that can effectively work in a broad temperature range - from minus 30 to plus 30 degrees centigrade, which is way beyond an ordinary dog, whose sense of smell deteriorates at minus 15.
In addition to hybrids, airports also use Rottweilers, dachshunds, and German Shepherds. They sniff departing airplanes, baggage and passengers at customs control and check-in points. The dog handling service is today part and parcel of a system that includes a wide spectrum of technical means and organizational activities.
"Dogs have proved their worth," Zaripov says. "The fact is that the most dangerous explosives today are the least volatile. Explosive devices are no longer fitted with a metal casing, which is easy to detect; they are small in size and mass. Their detonation systems are also minuscule. Dogs detect them better than any instruments can."
Cross-breeder Klim Sulimov believes that the results of the work speak for themselves. Having enlisted Aeroflot support, he intends to take his experiment further.
What is the scientific value of the experiment?
It is to restore to dogs the abilities that they have lost and use them for the benefit of humans.
Why did you not cross various breeds of dogs?
In crossing dog breeds, we would have had to work blindfold, at random. Furthermore, in the process of domestication dogs have lost many of their useful abilities. Say, the sheep dog will not survive without a human. The dog has lost a great deal once it was domesticated. All breeds have some narrow specialization. Why then should we take those that do not fit our job description in the first place and look for deviants so as to adapt them to our requirements?
How do you know that hybrids have a better sense of smell?
There is a special device, called olfactometer, to measure it. A jackal will pick up what is known as trace smells. Moreover, animals living at our latitude are unable to work in all seasons while the jackal, which is a subtropical animal, has a stable sense of smell throughout the year.
How did you get the idea to crossbreed a wild and domestic animal?
At the Interior Ministry Criminology Department, I engaged in forensic-criminological projects. They involved forensic examination, including identification based on traces left by particular individuals on the scene of a crime.
But surely any dog could do it?
We are not saying that a dog cannot do it. The point is which can do it better. Pertinent material, including statistics, is provided in my dissertation, Identification of an Individual by Olfactory Signals, which I defended in 1997.
Dog breeders are divided over which is better - centuries-old selection of dog breeds under human supervision or the sense of smell of a wild animal.
This is their weak point: They are all obsessed with their dogs, fighting for the purity of the breed. As a result, from day one dogs began to be bred as sporting, sheep, guard or attack dogs while the sense of smell ceased to be a priority.
Yet all of the world's airports use ordinary dogs. Why?
Yes, they are used. But let us compare the performance by a spaniel and a hybrid. To detect the smell of an explosive, a spaniel has to press its nose to a piece of baggage. It can easily pass it by. Hybrids smell it at a distance. Even so, we also use ordinary dogs to do simple tests. They have one incontestable advantage: They are less afraid of man.
What sort of temper do hybrids have? Are they more aggressive?
We immediately reject such specimens as defective. The jackal itself is not very aggressive. It behaves like a small animal, not like a wolf, although even a wolf is afraid of man. If you pick up a jackal, it kind of freezes, playing possum. The jackal is not a rival to man. It is, rather, a table-companion of large predators.
From police videos I've seen, I'm amazed that a perp can go into a crowd of people and cops and that dog knows just who the bad guy is - they smell the fear or something.
As for the Jackal-dog (Dogkal?), I don't think it's something we'll be importing soon.
The Democrats in South Dakota were the first to successfully do this. It was bred specifically to be the Senate Majority Leader.
Yeah, the first one was Tom Dashole and the second was Robert Reich. They've been spayed though, too dangerous to reproduce.;^)
I'm not at all surprised they use dachshunds. In fact, when I saw the thread title, I came here to post a reply that said, "if they really want a good sniffer, get a dachshund".
My dachshund is always absolutely amazing me with the keeness of her sense of smell. One time to keep her from squeaking her favorite toy when I was trying to sleep, I put her out in the back yard, then hid the toy on the top shelf of a cabinet in another room. When I let her back in, she nosed around the bedroom for a bit looking for the toy where she had left it. But less than 20 minutes later, she was sitting under the cabinet I had hid it in, staring at the closed door, barking for her toy.
Dachshunds are amazing dogs. They're extremely bright, and can run and jump much better than you'd believe given their odd shape and short legs. Their only real drawback is that they're incredibly stubborn and strong-willed.
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First the Liger:
The liger is a hybrid cat that inherits most of the strengths of both parent species and is larger than either. If you haven't seen a liger before, come visit Hobbs to get a look at the biggest cat you are ever likely to have seen. By way of size comparison, male Siberian tigers (the largest non-extinct naturally occurring member of the cat family, Felidea) average between 400 and 600 pounds. We estimate Hobbs to weigh about twice that. All ligers are presumed to be born sterile. This is not unusual for hybrids. Mules are the result of breeding a horse with a donkey and are also presumed to be sterile, although there is an occasional, extremely rare, exception. Hobbs: Hobbs, with a mane like a lion, the long body of a tiger, and more mass than either, is a striking animal. He exhibits traits of both parents, his mother was a Bengal tigress and his father an African lion. He roars like a lion and swims like a tiger. He's definitely all cat. He likes to play, and for all his incredible bulk he moves just as silently as any other cat.
Then the Leopon:
This is the combination of an African Leoprad and a lioness. Looks interesting doesn't it. 
And now for the Tigon:
there are also Doglas (Leopard and tiger), Tigards, lipards, pumapards, cheetahpards, serveetah (serval/cheetah), cervicals (serval/caracal)...even Blue Ligers (they are blue in color), golden Tigons, Li-Ligers (male lion/female liger), ti-liger, ti-tigons etc etc etc.
There are also other stuff like Wholphins (a mix of a whale and a dolphin).
Anyway if you want to have a good time check up on the foolowing animals: Ligers (lion father tigress mother....HUGE cats, much bigger than even the siberian/amur tiger since they have the best of both), Tigons (tiger father, lioness mother......big but not even close to the size of a tigon), Leopons (leopard dad lioness mom.....essentially a huge leopard with spots and a lion's mane....looks very regal), Li-Tigons, Ti-ligers, Li-ligers, Jaguatigers, jaglions, Lijagulep (congolese spotted lions)Cara-servals(caracal and serval), white ligers, spotted lions, golden tigons, black leopons etc etc. All these are exotic feline breeds that are amazing to see!
And then there are the Whalphins .....a killer whale with a bottlenosed dolphin).
It is quite interesting.
However one of the pictures i had was of a Liger 'standing up' on its hindlegs to capture a piece of meat the handler had placed on a pole, and that cat was a GIANT! They said the size was past 14 feet in that position (if it was made into a human standing position). And that is minus the tail! Amazing. (i am going to try to get that pic...but i think a search should yield the same results....i just hope it is the same one i am talking about).
LEOPON
LIGER
TIOGONS
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