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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@jsevans
| He, Him

Senior biometrician, with the Nature Conservancy science team, attempting to bring vigor from diverse fields such as landscape ecology, spatial statistics, remote sensing and applied mathematics to answer practical conservation questions.

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@sarah_gluszek

Fauna & Flora

Senior Technical Specialist, Wildlife Trade

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9 Discussions
9 Groups

@skatewing

Intertidal Agency

Data systems & policy solutions

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1 Resources
20 Discussions
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@cosmicspittle

University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science

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@Janawrocki

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@rkatz

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@marusuffern
| She/her

Passionate and curious about nature and its diversity, I seek to learn more about conservation, new technologies, and the unknown and infinite environmental world.

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@Daniel_Ferraz

Minas Gerais State University (UFMG)

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@Dsb

I'm a recent graduate with an applied degree in GIS and am looking to volunteer my time as a GIS tech or analyst. I love all things nature and watching the wildlife in our backyard. I have set up our webcam from time time trying to lure the wildlife for a good image.

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@phamming

Researcher at the Southern African Wildlife college with an interest in technologies supporting conservation management. Currently working with ESRI; SMART; EarthRanger and Tracking devices

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@Ruthmery

Peruvian biologist working on Andean bear conservation in the Peruvian Andes

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@Ng'weno

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Description	Activity	Groups	Updated
Invitation to join the FIT community on WildLabs	Hello Conservation Dogs group members WildTrack (wildtrack.org) has just joined WildLabs and we have a new community forum FIT (...	Conservation Dogs	5 years ago
List of grant opportunities for conservation dogs	Hi Yvan, My name is Jennifer Hartman and I work with Rogue Detection Teams, a program that works with and instructs conservation detection dog teams. Did you ever receive enough...	Conservation Dogs	5 years 4 months ago
Reptile Detector Dogs	Hi Steph and all, I don't work with detector dogs directly but colleagues of mine in the Pedernales province of the Dominican Republic have used a dog to locate iguana...	Conservation Dogs	7 years ago
Detection dogs used for border control	Hi Megan That sounds great, thank you! I will message you. Best Katrin	Conservation Dogs	7 years ago
Seminar: The power of non-invasive approaches to conservation science, Wednesday 1 November, 5pm (Cambridge)	The next Cambridge conservation seminar, on Wednesday 1 November, will feature Dr Sam Wasser, from the University of...	Conservation Dogs	7 years 6 months ago
Assessment of Detection and Tracking Dog Programs in Africa	Thanks!	Conservation Dogs	9 years ago

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