{"id":36485,"date":"2019-11-29T14:37:10","date_gmt":"2019-11-29T14:37:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/navytimes\/uncategorized\/2019\/11\/29\/spooked-by-sealion-abandoned-by-ship-flint-the-rat-sniffing-pooch-is-saved\/"},"modified":"2026-08-08T19:47:24","modified_gmt":"2026-08-08T19:47:24","slug":"spooked-by-sealion-abandoned-by-ship-flint-the-rat-sniffing-pooch-is-saved","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/navytimes\/news\/your-navy\/2019\/11\/29\/spooked-by-sealion-abandoned-by-ship-flint-the-rat-sniffing-pooch-is-saved\/","title":{"rendered":"Spooked by sealion, abandoned by ship, Flint the rat-sniffing pooch is saved!"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

WELLINGTON, New Zealand \u2014 Things first started to go wrong for Flint the rat-sniffing dog when a sealion charged at him. It emerged from the scrub, lurching and bellowing, full of aggression.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Spooked, he ran from his handler and no amount of calling or whistling could lure him back. Flint was lost and alone on uninhabited Campbell Island<\/a>, located between mainland New Zealand and Antarctica.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Making things worse? Flint was wearing a muzzle, so he couldn’t eat and would find it difficult, perhaps impossible, to drink.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The clock was ticking on his survival.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Kowhai, left, and Flint at a Wellington harbor waterfront. (New Zealand Department of Conservation via AP)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Flint was there as part of Operation Endurance<\/a>, a work program involving about 100 conservation rangers, weather officials and members of New Zealand\u2019s military.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Campbell Island is one of dozens of small islands that New Zealand has cleared of rodents and other predators, allowing endangered native birds to flourish. Flint was there to check that no rats had returned, the muzzle a standard piece of field equipment to stop the dogs from attacking the rare, flightless birds.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

John McCarroll, the Department of Conservation’s acting operations manager for the area, described what happened after Flint ran away Wednesday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Crews searched on foot and the military sent up a helicopter equipped with a thermal imaging camera to scour the island. But after seven hours, Flint couldn’t be found.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A Jack Russell-fox terrier cross, Flint, aged about five, is small and was lost in dense bush. The vest he was wearing to keep him warm may have thwarted the camera’s sensors.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At 11 p.m. Wednesday, with bad weather threatening and the navy ship they’d arrived on a week earlier experiencing some mechanical problems, the team made the heartbreaking decision to leave Flint behind.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Crew safety had to be the top priority.<\/p>\n\n\n\t