Conservation Detection Dogs
For more than a decade, biologists have utilized the olfactory capabilities of trained detection dogs to perform a number of research and conservation tasks. Detection dogs have been used to locate desert tortoises, identify scats from different species, conduct searches for invasive weeds, and perform a number of other research services.
In 2007, OWI began a collaboration with the Working Dogs for Conservation Foundation to study the capabilities of conservation detection dogs for surveys of Kincaid's lupine, a rare prairie wildflower of Oregon's Willamette Valley. Results of our research indicate that detection dogs can indeed offer valuable assistance to conservationists conducting plant surveys.
