Conservation Dogs

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Conservation dogs are making a difference in conservation through their noninvasive ability to detect elusive species in the wild, flag illegal wildlife trade products, and help poachers fight wildlife crime. Whether you work with conservation dogs, you're interested in incorporating them into your work, or you just want to learn about how dogs can support and enhance conservation technology's effectiveness, you're in the right place!

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In recent decades, the use of dogs in conservation work has exploded. Deployed to detect things like invasive or elusive species, scat, poachers, illegal wildlife trade products, and much more, conservation dog teams are trained to aid teams in the field. With benefits like speedier searches over large areas, proven targeted detection accuracy, and ease of transport and surveying, conservation dogs also offer possibilities for enhancing other technological methods by confirming or providing results in real-time.

Conservation dog teams now provide scat, reptile, aquatic species, whale scat, and invasive plant detection, and plenty more. This expansion of use is partly due to refined training techniques that offer a broader capability in very specialized detection roles, and partly due to more people seeing the capabilities and benefits of trained dogs.

Specifically, the utilization of dogs in conservation has experienced a considerable increase in recent years as people realize what the capability brings to the field survey arena. The benefits of dogs offering enhanced detection to support surveys includes:

Speed of search
Covering large areas effectively
Proven detection capability
Calibrated on a variety of species, if required
Accuracy in the detection of targets and ignoring similar non-target specimens
And easy to transport to survey sites.

Whether you train, handle, use, or are interested in finding out more about conservation dogs, this is the community for you! This group is growing, so if you'd like to get started and make connections here, here are some suggestions:

Do you have advice to share with others who are interested in trying conservation dog work for the first time? Or do you need advice on whether conservation dogs suit your work?
Do you have resources or research to share on training or using conservation dogs?
Do you have a case study or project update that involves conservation dogs?
Do you have a question about how to access conservation dogs for your own work?

Your group manager is Paul Bunker. Direct message him through WILDLABS or email him here with any questions or suggestions.

Header photo: Bill, photographed by Stephanie O'Donnell

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@pbunkeruk

Chiron K9

Canine Trainer/Consultant

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51 Discussions
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@Ziggy
| She/Her

Aquatic biologist focused on aquatic invasive species and freshwater pearly mussels

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4 Groups

@mattaudette
| he, him, his

Software Tester and Test Automator at Wildlife Protection Solutions

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1 Discussions
24 Groups

@kricherds
| she/her

Technologist. Civic Science Fellow & Data Inclusion Specialist at OEDP.

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@lukeshoemaker

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@CitlalliMJ6
| she/her

Conservation biologist, executive director at the Tesoro Escondido Reserve Foundation in the Ecuadorian Chocó, working on participatory action research, environmental education, primate and amphibian conservation

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7 Groups

@Erika_Barthelmess

St. Lawrence University

Professor of Biology at St. Lawrence University

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@antonab

World Wide Fund for Nature/ World Wildlife Fund (WWF)

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7 Discussions
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@Peter_Apps

Botswana Predator Conservation Trust

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85 Discussions
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@Danielkoroso

Dedicated wildlife conservationist with over three years of hands-on experience in field research and conservation. Through extensive fieldwork i developed a strong foundation in various conservation techniques, including camera trap deployment, plant inventory methods.

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@MartinaL

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@Lenny

University of British Columbia

Postdoc at UBC, exploring how drones enhance wildlife conservation using thermal cameras & AI tools to refine monitoring of large mammal populations in Canada & compare these approaches to traditional methods.

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Description	Activity	Replies	Groups	Updated
GPS collars for domestic dogs	Thank you! I will follow up by email.	+8	Animal Movement, Conservation Dogs, East Africa Community, Geospatial, Sensors, Women in Conservation Tech Programme (WiCT)	2 months 1 week ago
Conservation dogs deployed in Assam to counter poaching	Yes, Belgian Malinois dogs are very common nowadays to accompany park rangers in South Africa. 🐕‍🦺The park I worked with had three of them, but training them is quite expensive,...		Conservation Dogs	3 months 2 weeks ago
Collar Automatic Release Mechanisms	The PCB mount terminals are actually quite robust and paired with a lock washer and something that would better secure the nylon (e.g., a piece of flat grooved plastic to add...		Acoustics, Conservation Dogs, Sensors	6 months 1 week ago
CollarID: multimodal wearable sensor system for wild and domesticated dogs	Hi Steph, We appreciate the support! Thanks for the tag and your help managing the community!Patrick		Sensors, Acoustics, Conservation Dogs, Emerging Tech, Open Source Solutions	1 year ago
Thinking out loud	These are great materials to refer to. I just have to wrap my amateur brain around the technological words but I should be fine. Thank you Harold.		Conservation Dogs, Women in Conservation Tech Programme (WiCT)	2 years 2 months ago
Detection dog-team outcompetes human fieldworkers in collecting pine marten scat	"Preliminary results- Fecal samples are increasingly used in wildlife research to confirm species’ presence and to estimate population...		Conservation Dogs	2 years 10 months ago
Evaluating Spotted Lanternfly Detection Dog Capability and Limits of Detection.	In this short presentation, Dr. Edgar Aviles-Rosa of the Canine Olfaction Lab at Texas Tech University joins Chiron K9's Principal,...		Conservation Dogs	3 years 2 months ago
Replay Conservation Canine Conference	The UK's first Conservation Canine conference is now available for replay ticket purchase. Day 1 9:30 -...		Conservation Dogs	3 years 2 months ago
Detection dogs in Conservation	thanks Pete, yes we're going to collect some from captive animals when they come out of hibernation. I'll keep in touch.		Conservation Dogs	3 years 5 months ago
Conservation Canine Conference	Thank you! I just replied via email.		Conservation Dogs	3 years 5 months ago
News Article: These Dogs Are a Bird's Best Friend	With their boundless enthusiasm and amazing powers of smell, canines are playing a growing role in global efforts to protect wildlife.		Conservation Dogs	3 years 5 months ago
Training methodology for canine scent detection of a critically endangered lagomorph	This paper describes the training methodology used to investigate the ability of a scent detection dog to locate live riverine rabbits (...		Conservation Dogs	3 years 7 months ago

discussion

Seminar: The power of non-invasive approaches to conservation science, Wednesday 1 November, 5pm (Cambridge)

Stephanie O'Donnell

23 October 2017 10:43am

The next Cambridge conservation seminar, on Wednesday 1 November, will feature Dr Sam Wasser, from the University of Washington. Dr Wasser is the Director of...

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discussion

Assessment of Detection and Tracking Dog Programs in Africa

Rachel Kramer

5 April 2016 7:43pm

For those who may not be aware, Working Dogs for Conservation (with support from the Elephant Crisis Fund) published a really valuable assessment in 2015 of detection and tracking...

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Marie Mainil

15 April 2016 5:45pm

Hi Rachel, the link seems to be broken, fyi.

Marie

Stephanie O'Donnell

18 April 2016 9:41am

Hi Marie,

Thanks for alerting us to a possible broken link. I've just double checked both links Rachel shared and they both appear to be working. Just in case, the links are:

Working Dogs for Conservation: http://wd4c.org/

Assessment of Detection and Tracking Dog Programs in Africa (PDF): http://files7.design-editor.com/90/9024931/UploadedFiles/520bd328-b718-423f-b041-da20b254e24a.pdf

Marie Mainil

24 April 2016 3:22am

Thanks!

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