Conservation Dogs, Nature’s Best Friends

Beyond simply sniffing out scat, today's conservation dogs are trained to find underground bird burrows, oil spills and invasive mussels—very good boys and girls, indeed

• By Timothy Mihocik
• Conservation
• Dec 18, 2024

Conservation Dogs of Hawai‘i’s Kyoko Johnson and Solo search the dormant volcano Mauna Kea for the burrows of endangered Hawaiian petrels on the Big Island. (Photo by Tor Johnson)

IT’S 11 A.M. on an October day in 2021, and Kyoko Johnson and 9-year-old Solo, a Labrador retriever, have been on the prowl for two hours, searching for the burrows of seabirds found only in Hawai‘i. Here, in the mountains of Mauna Kea on the Big Island, they’re looking for Hawaiian petrels, nocturnal birds that nest in lava tunnels reaching as far as 30 feet below ground. Measuring 16 inches long with a wingspan of 3 feet, the grey and white birds are especially susceptible to predation by invasive rats and feral cats.

If Johnson’s team, hired by Hawai‘i’s Division of Forestry and Wildlife, can find the burrows, this proof of active nesting sites will encourage the state to fund predator-proof fences and other efforts to protect the petrel, classified as endangered by the federal government. In a state that saw at least eight native bird species listed as extinct in 2023 alone, “it’s a big job,” Johnson says. “But when conservation dogs are used, it can be an amazingly effective and efficient detection method for locating threatened species.”

Twenty-five years after the University of Washington biologist Samuel Wasser and his dog Moja pioneered tracking populations of grizzly bears and gray wolves in the Pacific Northwest by sniffing out scat, dogs are assisting conservation efforts in increasingly sophisticated ways. Today’s practices range from locating invasive plants and predators to detecting deadly oil leaks to seeking out at-risk native species, from migratory hoary bats and Texas horned lizards to rare ladies’ tresses orchids. These collective efforts help protect wildlife, conserve fragile environments and save the United States millions of dollars in invasive species damage each year.

Why dogs?

With our nine outer ear muscles and largely stationary ears, humans can hear frequencies up to 20 kHz. Dogs, however, have around 18 auricular muscles, allowing them to orient their ears and funnel sounds as high as around 60 kHz. Even more impressive is a dog’s sense of smell: up to 100,000 times more sensitive than a human’s and supported by hundreds of millions of olfactory receptors compared to a human’s maximum of 20 million or so. Plus, dogs can sniff and breathe at the same time, allowing them to retain scents as they exhale.

“Dogs can detect some scents at the parts per trillion level, which is equal to detecting 1 gallon of contaminant inside a trillion gallons of water, while common mechanical methods ... can only detect at parts per billion,” says Amritha Mallikarjun, a postdoctoral researcher at the Penn Vet Working Dog Center of the University of Pennsylvania. “So, dogs are better than machines currently at identifying these odors.”

These powerful senses propelled dogs into increasingly helpful roles in society: search and rescue dogs trained by monks in the Swiss Alps during the 17th century; wartime mercy dogs trained in the late 19th century to deliver medical supplies and comfort to wounded soldiers on the battlefield; and in the late 20th century, service dogs trained to detect ailments such as seizures and strokes in their human owners.

Eventually conservationists took notice, including pioneering individuals like Richard Henry of 1890s New Zealand, the first to use a muzzled dog to find and relocate kākāpō and kiwi birds to other islands, where he believed they would be safe from introduced predators. Henry theorized that, with the right training, canines could become invaluable assets in protecting native ecosystems.

But why these dogs, in particular? Many dogs trained for conservation come from long-established working breeds—Labradors, border collies, Belgian Malinois—known for their intelligence, drive and desire to please. These qualities aren’t unique to purebreds, though. Shelter dogs too energetic for the average adopter and failed therapy dogs deemed too ambitious for medical settings also have found success working in conservation.

Once a strong candidate is identified, trainers teach the dog the basics of odor recognition, effective search strategies, how to stay focused in busy environments, safety behaviors and more. It’s a two-way process that forms a deep bond between the dog and its handler—and often the handler’s family, as well. As Kayla Fratt, the founder of K9 Conservationists, says, “We look for dogs that fit easily into our homes, are safe with school kids, easily learn to ignore wildlife [that are unrelated to their assignments] and love-love-love to work. They’re part of the family, sleeping in bed, going on bike rides and licking our bowls clean during the offseason.”

But conservation training isn’t all rainbows and puppy dog tails. Dogs may not work out for a variety of reasons. “It’s a lack of desire or motivation to work for long periods in rough conditions with a long time between rewards,” Josephine Lock of Nose No Limit says of some mismatches. “It’s the inability to cope with traveling in different vehicles, such as cars, boats and airplanes, as well as spending nights in hotels or camping and working around people the dog has never met before.” On the flip side, too much drive—a pro in police search and biosecurity work—can make for dogs too easily distracted by nontarget animals or too risky to be trusted around endangered wildlife. Any missteps can compromise the outcome of a conservation assignment.

“This is supposed to be a dream job for dogs,” says Lindsay Ware of Science Dogs of New England. “Their joy is a huge part of success, and professional practitioners are not going to force a career on a dog that’s not a good fit.”

The art of detection

Just like humans, different dogs take to different specialties. In the practice known as detection, a dog is trained in a controlled setting to find a specific plant, animal or insect—usually an elusive or endangered species, or one of scientific or medical interest. Over the course of a few weeks to months, handlers introduce biological and artificial samples—feathers, fur, larvae, pheromones, corpses—for the dogs to learn to distinguish from other scents.

When the dog and its handler are ready to search in the field, they cover a given location with a system of sweeps and grids until the dog picks up the scent. From there the dog follows the scent until it either loses or locates its target, at which point it alerts the handler, usually silently, to the location. If the dog finds its target, the handler rewards the dog with play, praise or treats—positive reinforcement for a game well played. For the humans and targets, however, these assignments are far from a round of fetch.

Take Ware’s Science Dogs of New England. Along with Delta, a 6-year-old Australian shepherd mix, and Chili Bean, a 4-year-old Labrador retriever, Ware has worked hundreds of cases to find and relocate native wood turtles. Listed as a species of greatest conservation need in the 17 states, plus Washington, D.C., that make up its U.S. habitat, the wood turtle often wanders onto farms and commercial sites from which it must be relocated for its own safety and so that landowners don’t inadvertently harm it.

“The loss of even one or two females can have a profound effect on population viability,” says Ware, whose clients have included energy and construction subcontractors and farmers who uncover turtles while working their fields. “Wood turtles are an indicator species, and their health and populations can reflect the surrounding environmental conditions.”

Another detection specialist, Laura Holder of Conservation Dogs Collective, and her Labrador retrievers Ernie, 7, and Betty White, 5, have been key to identifying bumble bee nests in Wisconsin. With 20 species of bumble bees native to the state—including the endangered rusty patched bumble bee, which regularly travels up to 6 miles in search of pollen—Holder and her dogs have their work cut out for them.

They’re up to the challenge. At a sculpture garden north of Milwaukee, the dogs identified five different nests belonging to five separate native bee species in an area measuring roughly 180 square feet. “The correlation between where [the bees] are foraging and where nests are found is a critical piece of information,” Holder says. The data her team is collecting with her client partners will allow researchers to learn more about bee behaviors, which in turn could lead to conservation of the pollinators’ habitats.

“We can learn more about nest site habitats, bumble bee colony behavior and help bring awareness to both our clients and local communities about these important pollinators,” she says.

To protect and save

Whereas in detection, a dog’s job is to locate largely at-risk wildlife in natural habitats, dogs working in ecological protection help find animals that have fallen prey to human-caused threats.

In addition to monitoring bird burrows, Kyoko Johnson’s Conservation Dogs of Hawai‘i responds to a phenomenon known as seabird fallout. Each fall, endangered seabird fledglings—such as the band-rumped storm petrel and Newell’s shearwater—make their inaugural flights out to sea by the light of the moon. But these fledglings often mistake artificial illumination for moonlight and follow the light sources, from streetlights to fire pits, farther inland instead of toward open ocean, becoming lost. Many of the birds end up on the ground due to exhaustion or window strikes. In some cases, birds regain strength on their own and fly off. In others, birds succumb to their injuries or are killed by predators. The lucky ones will be spotted by people who contact wildlife rehabilitation centers. While many businesses are required to monitor for downed seabirds, it’s not a fail-safe solution.

“Last year one of our dogs, Xena, found a Newell’s shearwater hiding under a garbage dumpster,” Johnson says. “It’s not likely that a human would have checked under the dumpster, much less found it.”

Dogs also are locating some of the hundreds of thousands of bats and birds that fatally collide with wind turbines each year, peaking during seasonal migrations. K9inSCENTive founder Lauralea Oliver and her four-legged team—Circe, a 7-year-old black Labrador; Mamba, a 3-year-old Lab/spaniel/Australian shepherd mix; and Muon, a 4-year-old Belgian shepherd mix—routinely patrol wind farms outside Los Angeles. Oliver collects the bodies for migration-pattern studies, which could help reduce collision fatalities over time.

“Dogs have proven to have a detection rate far better than any human surveyors, so they can help to gather more robust data about the types of species being affected and when they are feeling the most impact,” Oliver says.

Some dogs working in environmental protection are trained to locate elements beyond plants and animals. Paul Bunker and his team at Chiron K9 help mitigate some of the thousands of oil spills that occur in U.S. waters each year. Nika, a 7-year-old black Lab, and Poppy, a 5-year-old springer spaniel, detect and alert the presence of target hydrocarbons—used in combustible fuel sources, such as oil—above and below the surfaces of ground and water, at depths up to 15 feet. Biohazards on land and sea, these leaks and spills impact a host of endangered wildlife, from Kemp’s ridley sea turtles to sperm whales.

Hired by spill response specialists, Bunker estimates his team has spent thousands of hours searching for leaks, spills and illegal pipeline taps. Decked out in vests, goggles and heat-resistant paw protectors when necessary, Nika and Poppy scour terrain aerial or ground units might be unable to inspect, including boulders and bedrock. “Dogs are able to cover a single acre of land in around three minutes with a detection rate of almost 100 percent every time,” Bunker says.

Invasives be gone

In invasive species control, also known as biosecurity, dogs help detect aggressively spreading nonnative plants and animals early, so the interlopers can be removed before they crowd out native species. Montana-based Working Dogs for Conservation (WD4C) has been a leader in the field since 1998, with dyer’s woad as a prime case study. A single plant of this highly invasive species, found on the grasslands surrounding Montana’s Mount Sentinel, can spread up to 10,000 seeds each year, rapidly displacing native flora. First discovered in the state in 1934, the hardy plant likely was introduced to the United States as a contaminant among alfalfa seeds.

“Like many biological threats, these plants can reproduce on their own and, because few or none of our native species eat them or infect them or hold them in check ... [they] can take over and choke out the native species,” says WD4C’s executive director, Pete Coppolillo.

After local efforts to remove dyer’s woad didn’t seem to make much of a dent, WD4C worked alongside a consortium of local partners to locate the tenacious weed. The dogs were able to identify around 95 percent of the plant population in their second year on the job, catching more than 500 plants before they dropped seed. Two years later, in 2016, the dogs had eradicated the population so thoroughly that they found only 19 plants. The dogs’ finely tuned noses even located root remnants of previously removed plants.

“It’s an ongoing process, but hopefully we’ll get them all and have a few years without a plant, and then we can declare victory,” Coppolillo says.

Another WD4C project targets two invasive stowaways that have caused billions of dollars in damage: zebra and quagga mussels. These bivalves and their larvae—which not only consume algae and plankton necessary for healthy native ecosystems but also clog pipes delivering water to communities, power plants and sewage treatment facilities—have wreaked havoc coast to coast by attaching themselves to boats that travel between bodies of water. Upon an initial inspection across Montana’s Flathead Basin in 2014, WD4C dogs identified 100 percent of watercraft bearing mussels compared to human inspectors’ 75 percent.

“We also learned that one of the major benefits of dogs is their speed,” Coppolillo says. “For a boat that would take a human an hour to visually inspect, the dogs can inspect it in about three minutes.”

Hazards and hits

Aside from the perpetual obstacles of operating small nonprofits, most handlers agree on one especially steep hurdle in conservation canine work: “the acquisition of reliable, verified training samples, especially when working with rare or endangered species, which often require government permits,” K9inSCENTive’s Oliver says of the pelts, scat, remains and more used in scent training. Sometimes teams must make do with scented objects, which may not hold an odor long enough for dogs to retain it, or, in the case of synthetic scents, might smell like urine or musk to a human but distinctly different to a dog.

And then there’s nature itself. The habitats in which dogs and their handlers work can be unpredictable and unsafe, featuring floods, heat waves, burr-filled brush and harrowing run-ins with venomous snakes. Says Bunker, “I have contracted dengue fever in a remote area of Laos; been attacked by a beaver; encountered less than friendly bears, moose and sea lions, but I wouldn’t change a thing.”

A lesser issue, handlers say, but still one of note is cueing. Cueing occurs when a dog picks up unintentional signals or emotions from its handler and acts upon those misreads, believing it’s doing exactly what the handler wants it to do. In recent years, cueing has made the news among police canine units when a dog senses an officer’s feelings about a suspect and responds with unprovoked and unnecessary aggression. While situations like these aren’t common in conservation, dogs can be susceptible. As Coppolillo says, “Dogs are even better than humans at reading human body language.”

In conservation work, cueing primarily comes into play in scent-training activities known as blind studies, in which the handler knows the location of a scented object but the dog doesn’t. As the dog begins to search, it may pick up silent signals from its human partner, such as subtle movements, holding one’s breath or breathing fast, or even facial expressions revealing anticipation. In controlled settings, double-blind training, in which neither the dog nor the handler knows where a target is hidden, can alleviate the issue.

On assignment, however, miscues can happen. “In the field, a handler may not know where the target is but may do things that inadvertently cue the dog that a target is near, such as crowding or bending down to investigate something,” Johnson says. “This can cause the dog to do what we call a false alert, or alerting on a nonexistent target.” While working off-leash can help, it’s not always a viable option.

“The handler is multitasking like crazy to make sure the messages they are sending their dog are really what they want to say,” Bunker says. “Even though it may look like a handler is just kind of there and the dog is doing all of the work, it really is a cohesive team.”

Practitioners say the conservation canine community makes up its own cohesive team—one they call tight-knit and keen on promoting an increasingly welcoming environment. Last July, nine organizations came together to launch the Conservation Dog Alliance, establishing best practices and conservation ethics. Says Fratt of K9 Conservationists, a founding member, “It takes a village to make this all work.” Toward the same goal, in 2023 Lock, Holder and others self-published a guidebook documenting agreed-upon methods for collecting canine-supported data in the field.

Meanwhile, canine conservation is bounding into the future. For WD4C, new projects include a pilot program in which Coppolillo’s dogs are learning to tell the difference between the scat of healthy bighorn sheep and those infected with Mycoplasma ovipneumoniae, a contagious bacterium that can cause respiratory issues and potentially death. If the project proves effective and sustainable, the method could be applied to other species, possibly preventing the spread of transmissible diseases among already endangered wildlife.

Who knows what’s next? As Bunker says, “Limitation at the moment is human imagination, not canine ability.”

This story has been updated to correct the date and dog involved in Conservation Dogs of Hawai‘i’s 2021 seabird burrow work.

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Timothy Mihocik is a former zookeeper turned writer, wildlife photographer and part-time wildlife rehabilitator from Ohio.

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