Background

Our Story

Since the beginnings of our deeply rooted relationship, humans have utilized the greater than 220 million scent-sensitive cells available for canine olfaction to sniff out a wealth of information. Whether it’s a lost hiker, the point source of air pollutants, or a melanoma, this canine sensory ability has proven its worth and new uses continue to emerge. Behavioral tests reveal that dogs can distinguish odors of different species of animals and their sign (e.g., scat, urine, hair, dens), proving invaluable in conservation programs for rare or endangered species.

Working Dogs for Conservation (WDC) formed in 2000 to collect information-rich wildlife samples using specially trained dogs, utilizing techniques similar to those used in search and rescue, narcotic, and cadaver detection disciplines. Deployed conservation dogs have increased scat sample collection rates and detect samples that are smaller and more cryptic than people alone are capable of detecting. In addition, our dogs have located both live animals and plants.

Our Dogs

Our Dogs

Increasing concern about the status of rare species and endangered wildlife populations has spurred the development of non-invasive methods for wildlife censusing, monitoring and research. Examples of non-invasive sampling methods include photographic traps, hair snag stations, and fecal (scat) collection. In particular, scat samples can provide a wealth of information such as a species’ presence, relative abundance, food habits, parasite loads, habitat use and home range size.

Projects

Projects

2009

Montana: Research into the olfactory capabilities of dogs in detecting various noxious weeds in collaboration with the University of Montana.
Hawaii: Research into the application of dogs to search for the invasive snail Euglandina rosea, considered one of the world’s 100 worst invaders with Oahu Army Natural Resources Program and the University of Hawaii.
Illinois: Franklin’s [...]