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Leipzig (dpa) - When researching endangered animal and plant species, scientists from Leipzig and Berlin rely on four-legged helpers.
Specially trained species detection dogs could make an important contribution to recording the stocks of rare animals and plants, said the Environmental Research Center (UFZ) on Tuesday in Leipzig.
It is by no means easy to record the habitats of crested newts or otters, for example.
Many animals lead a life in secrecy, even their legacies such as excrement are difficult for humans to discover.
"We urgently need to know more about these species," said Annegret Grimm-Seyfarth from the UFZ.
"But first we have to find them."
A dog's sense of smell is predestined to find the smallest traces of a sought-after species in nature.
While humans have around 6 million olfactory receptors, a herding dog has more than 200 million, and a beagle even 300 million.
Finding animal droppings in a forest or sniffing out mushrooms underground is no problem for dogs.
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Together with Anne Berger from the Leibniz Institute for Zoo and Wildlife Research in Berlin and Wiebke Harms from the UFZ, Grimm-Seyfahrt has published an overview study on the use of species detection dogs worldwide in the journal “Methods in Ecology and Evolution”.
It was about which dog breeds are used, which species they were looking for and how successful they were.
For this purpose, 1220 publications were evaluated that documented deployments in 60 countries.
The researchers conclude that good experiences have been made with the use of species detection dogs.
The animals are often more successful than camera traps, for example.
Grimm-Seyfarth is already planning new missions for the animal snoopers: In a new project, they are to look for invasive plant species.
© dpa-infocom, dpa: 210302-99-656697 / 2
Overview study