dogs working for wildlife conservation

[sluj]

Wildlife biologists put dogs' scat-sniffing talents to good use

[Laurae]

I finally got a chance to read this article--it's great that biologists are finding ways to apply some of the unique gifts dogs possess to help them work, and I hope the practice becomes more widespread. Thanks for posting it!

[sluj]

Just came across this:

http://companionanimalsolutions.com/blogs/whales-dogs-poop-and-conservation-biology/

another group at U. Washington is also using dogs for scat locating - thing is, they're tracking killer whales!

[Lewis Moon]

There are also people training dogs to sniff out leaking septic tanks. If you've ever seen a mountain stream completely choked with detergent foam and a wild overgrowth of algae, you'll know why this is important to aquatic ecologists like me.

[gcv-border]

Yes, I knew about the scat-sniffing dogs (bear, wolves, fox, etc.) and the whale-scat-sniffing dogs (now that is impressive since the currents and such can affect the smell). I have also heard of termite- and bedbug-detection dogs. The list continues with cancer-detection dogs, seizure-alert dogs, cadaver dogs and, of course, drug, bomb and fire accelerant-detection dogs.

 

A woman in my area teaches air scent and cadaver dogs for the local SAR teams, and she used to handle bloodhounds for tracking. She currently owns 2 viszlas - one is her certified seizure alert dog (for herself) and is also a certified HRD dog (human remains detection) that is being trained to detect archeological human remains (several thousands of years old). Her younger viszla is trained to detect knapeweed, an invasive weed, and she is working with the conservation department with this dog.

 

I am constantly amazed at, not only the olfactory sensitivity of dogs, but also at the creative tasks that humans use them for. (dogs that can detect leaking septic tanks - what an ingenious, and useful, idea!)

 

Jovi