Nose his business: New Zealand trains dogs to sniff out deadly kauri tree disease

Dogs are able to detect kauri dieback in seconds rather than weeks, greatly speeding up diagnosis

New Zealand is deploying dogs to sniff out a deadly disease that is causing havoc to ancient kauri trees in the North Island.

Four-year old English springer spaniel Pip and five-year-old jagdterrier Mawhai have spent over a year training to sniff out kauri dieback, in the hope the Auckland council biosecurity team can stop it spreading to islands off the gulf and the parts of the Waitakere Ranges, which have so far been spared.