Grand Canyon adds new dog to help reduce wildlife interactions with visitors

GRAND CANYON, AZ (InvestigateTV) — Each year, there are dangerous encounters between Grand Canyon visitors and wildlife such as elk. So the park created a new program to reduce these interactions, with the introduction of their newest employee, Blue, the Catahoula dog.Around 5 million people visit the Grand Canyon, and wildlife biologist Brady Dunne said people get too close to wildlife.“Every time someone calls for an incident, I’m the one who responds,” said Dunne. “I graphed out that data, and just year after year has climbed exponentially.”He said they track at least 12 guest and wildlife interactions that are classified as dangerous each year, but those are only the ones recorded.Dunne said one of the reasons there are so many interactions is the number of elk and their adaptive behaviors.“Right now, we have the most elk we’ve ever had, and the highest percentage of those elk are habituated,” he said.He created a program using Blue, the 18-month-old Catahoula Leonberger dog, to te