Damon Lowery

Success and Failures of an Ecological Detection-dog Service

The use of detection dogs in ecological research and management continues to grow. Two years ago, a collaborative effort was formed at Auburn University with the goal of training detection dogs for use in ecological research. Here we provide details about the projects for which we have used dogs, measures of success for those projects, and lessons learned. We have successfully used dogs in the field to find scat from black bear (Ursus americanus), bobcat (Lynx rufus), gray fox (Urocyon cinereoargenteus), and coyote (Canis latrans). We have also used dogs to locate live pythons (Python...