Also a warm welcome to Keely joining Animal Ark - with a double major in Zoology and Conservation Biology and a keen interest in wildlife conservation she will fit in perfectly with the team.

And it's a goodbye to Ziggy who we will miss heaps – she has taken up a graduate Environmental Advisor position in the mining industry.

A big thank you to all our wonderful hosts over the recent months on our travels around WA - pictured here our newest recruit Keely with would be wildlife handlers Ella and Liam in Margaret River - thank you guys for your help and enthusiasm.

We measure sound frequency in hertz (Hz). A healthy young human should hear things roughly between 20 to 20,000 Hz. Some creatures can hear well outside this range:

Range: 67 - 45,000 Hz

Range 55 - 77,000 Hz

Range 1 – 200,000 Hz

Range up to 300,000 Hz

Range 17 – 120,000 Hz

Range 125 - 12,000 Hz

Range 80 - 160 Hz

Here ecologist Veronica is holding a tubed Mulga or King Brown snake (Pseudechis australis).

If you fancy an interesting day out, mention this newsletter and get 15% off any individual booking onto a Venomous Snake Handling course in April or May.

So keep an eye out, this is a busy period for snakes recently hatched or live born to be looking for a habitat in which to take up residence. On warmer days they stress from the heat and look for cooler places to hang out.

If you are trained, have an up to date Regulation 17 Reptile Removalists licence and would like to be added to this list please email us with your name, a mobile number and the suburbs you are willing to cover.

If you would like your name and contact details removed, do please let us know too!

Thank you.

Evidence today suggests that modern wolves are not closely related to a more ancient kind of wolf from which the domestic dog in fact descends. Whilst their exact ancestry is uncertain, we know that pet dogs were the first ever domesticated species and were used to work and accompany humans when we lived exclusively as hunter-gatherers. This domestication may have occurred as early as 30,000 years ago, long before humans settled and started agriculture and built the first permanent settlements. Dogs have been buried alongside humans for at least 14,000 years ago.

I have been lucky enough to meet and work with a large number of the hundreds of breeds known, from the diminutive Chihuahua to the more standard size Xoloitzcuintli or Mexican hairless dog and from Yorkshire terriers to the massive English Mastiffs. Like many of you I have also welcomed several into my home as pets and also grew up alongside dogs from a standard poodle through to a collie x chow to the two Jack Russells I have today. One of which Steve is 16 years of age and will inevitably not be with us much longer. My family, like much of humanity before us, will honour his passing in a way that has endured for millennia. The very special human/dog relationship continues on into our modern age.

Dogs have an acute sense of smell that has earned them varied roles with humans from trackers to truffle hunters. They are more famously companions and 'mans best friend' is a well-earned term. So popular in fact are they that the world population is estimated to be around 900 million. Whilst many live lives of privilege others are quite cruelly treated and feral populations are common around the world.

• Smallest: Yorkshire terrier 6.3cm at shoulder, 9.5cm body length, weight 113gms
• Largest: English Mastiff weight 155.6kg, 250cm body length
• Gestation: An average of 63 days and 6 is an average number of puppies although litter sizes vary enormously with breed.
• Average lifespan: 14-15 years (depends on the breed)