Science & Technology - Dogs are trained to find feces by scent

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Dogs are trained to find feces by scent

SEATTLE (UPI) -- U.S. scientists say they are training dogs to detect animal feces by scent in a project designed to help protect threatened species in Brazil.

The dogs are being used to help monitor rare and threatened wildlife such as jaguars and giant anteaters in and around Emas National Park, a protected area with the largest concentration of threatened species in Brazil.

The project is led by Carly Vynne of the Center for Conservation Biology at the University of Washington, in partnership with Conservation International Brazil.

Trained in the same manner as dogs trained to sniff out drugs, the dogs are non-intrusive, finding biological material without capturing or sedating animals.

"The levels of stress hormones in the animals' feces are important indicators in the evaluation of their capacity to reproduce in a given environment or if they would be destined to disappear from the region," said Professor Marinho Filho of the University of Brasilia.

The researchers use feces found by the dogs to analyze such factors as numbers, range, diet, hormonal stress and parasites.

The dogs are rewarded for their good work with tennis balls to chase and chew.

Copyright 2008 by United Press International

This news arrived on: 05/14/2008

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