Shelter Dogs Come to the Rescue for Rare Salamanders

[Jennewt]

Http://www.nature.org/ourinitiatives...new-mexico.xml

Shelter Dogs Come to the Rescue for Rare Salamanders

Four-legged researchers sniff out critical conservation data to help New Mexico's forests adapt to a changing climate.


This summer, an unusual team of researchers is coming to New Mexico’s Jemez Mountains to help protect a rare salamander found nowhere else in the world.
The researchers are happy to work all day traversing plains, climbing up mountains, and clambering over rocks and fallen trees.
They are extremely energetic and focused. And they love to play chase with a ball.
These researchers are the four-legged variety—rescue dogs trained to sniff out wildlife scat and help conservation planners and land managers collect valuable data about wildlife populations.
The so-called Conservation Canines—all rescued shelter dogs—will work with the Conservancy, the US Forest Service, US Fish and Wildlife Service, New Mexico Department of Game and Fish, and the Valles Caldera National Preserve to map salamander distribution in the Jemez Mountains and improve our understanding of how to manage forests in the face of a changing climate.

Meet the Dogs

Alli is an Australian Cattle Dog mix who has sniffed out wolf, wolverine, grizzly bear and the Oregon Spotted Frog.
Sampson is a labrador rescued from the Seattle Humane Society. His field work has included research projects on lynx, northern spotted owls and sea turtle nests.
Alli and Sampson will be on assignment for the New Mexico project. In all, the Washington-based Conservation Canines team has 11 dogs in active duty.
These trained dogs work happily and eagerly 4-6 hours a day, motivated by the expectation of a ball reward given only when they find wildlife scat.
The obsessive, high-energy personalities of scat-detection dogs make them difficult to maintain as family pets. For these dogs, a home placement could mean returning to the shelter and possible euthanasia.
Conservation Canines provides a rewarding and satisfying alternative—a career in the field of conservation research.
Dogs from the program have worked on projects searching for spotted owls in the Pacific Northwest, jaguars and wolves in Brazil, and even orcas in the Pacific Ocean.
Compared to traditional wildlife detection methods (remote cameras, radio-collars, hair snags and trapping), no other method can acquire such a vast amount of reliable information in so short a time. It’s an approach conservation planners and land managers find incredibly valuable.

The Search for Salamanders

Jemez Mountains salamanders—a candidate for the Endangered Species List found nowhere else on Earth except north-central New Mexico—are in rapid decline. A warmer, drier climate in the state has impacted the salamanders’ habitat—threatening their long-term survival.
They are also very hard to find. And that’s where the dogs can help.
This study is part of the Conservancy’s Southwest Climate Change Initiative, an effort to develop adaptation strategies that make the Jemez Mountains healthier and more resilient for salamanders, other animals and plants, and humans, too.
In 2011, the Conservancy convened several members of the Jemez Pueblo to collect salamander scent samples, which were then delivered to the Conservation Canines group for training.
This summer, the dogs will travel to New Mexico for two weeks to continue their highly specialized training to locate these reclusive amphibians.
The dogs’ findings will help the Conservancy and partners better understand where salamanders live so we can move forward with our forest restoration program in the Jemez Mountains without impacting salamander habitat.
This forestry work will preserve wildlife habitat and improve forest health, reducing the risk of damaging wildfire.
Large and destructive crown fires—like last summer’s Las Conchas Fire—destroy the trees that the salamanders depend on for shelter, and are therefore the biggest threat to Jemez Mountain salamander populations.
Conservation Canines will have a critical role to play in helping us develop strategies to keep New Mexico’s forests healthy for generations to come.
You can help! Your critical support is needed today to help fund the Conservation Canines research and improve how we manage New Mexico's vital forests.

[Molch]

yes! Can I sign up my dog? She's an expert at finding poop. We'd love to roam the woods of NM for a few weeks :)

[Kaiseric]

Amazing! Thanks for sharing this Jen, made my morning

[Justin]

MSN is running an article today about this. Seems there's a blog post in the point of view of the salamander now.

[Jennewt]

I had the pleasure of meeting one of the salamander-sniffing dogs at a dog demo in Santa Fe a couple of weeks ago. Frehley is a bundle of energy and enthusiasm. He was rescued from a shelter where his only entertainment was to chase his own feet and he was literally going insane.

The same team of dogs has been trained to sniff out several different species being monitored in various places. The salamander project is the first where the dogs are trained to find the actual animal itself - usually they are monitoring animals based on scat. They've even been used to sniff out whale scat from the bow of a boat.

At the dog demo, there was a scent sample (not salamander, one of the other animals he's trained for) placed in a field, and the dog got to run around until he found it. His reward is that he then gets to play with a ball, which is evidently total nirvana for this dog!

[2gsom]

that is very cool. What a great thing to see, and a great new lease on life for a rescue dog.

[Alejandro]

Dear Jennifer, Are these Border Collies?

[Jennewt]

This one is a border collie, but the other dogs are various breeds:
Active Conservation Canines | The Center for Conservation Biology