Disinterested Affection: Dogs, Humans and Evolution: detection dog

Tuesday, July 22, 2014

Detection dogs and big cats

Greg Davidson and detection dog Chevy searching for cougar scat.

Detection dogs can be trained to locate explosives, illegal drugs, wildlife scat, or human remains. They have even been trained to locate illicit mobile phones in prisons. But, they have become extremely valuable for wildlife biologists and have been used to collect data on invasive species as well as endangered species.

In a forthcoming study in the Journal of Wildlife Management, Greg Davidson and colleagues from Find it Detection Dogs, used detection dogs to estimate the population size of cougars in northeast Oregon. Cougars are solitary, elusive, and have large home ranges. The researchers surveyed a 220 km² area using conservation detection dogs trained to locate cougar scat. Two hundred and seventy-two scat samples were collected, and 249 were analyzed for individual identification using DNA. From 73 samples, 21 cougars (9 males and 12 females) could be recognized. The authors evaluated four models to estimate cougar densities: Huggins closed population capture–recapture (Huggins), CAPWIRE, multiple detections with Poisson (MDP), and spatially explicit capture–recapture (SECR). Their population estimates for the study area were 26 (9 males and 17 females) from Huggins models, 24 (9 males and 15 females) from CAPWIRE, and 27 (9 males and 18 females) from the MDP model.

This study demonstrates the efficacy of using detection dogs to collect cougar scat. The results suggest the probability of a dog finding a cougar’s scat on the landscape (given scat was available) in any of the 4 surveys was 0.99 for males and 0.68 for females. As a result, the authors were able to collected scat from all 4 GPS-collared cougars known to occupy a portion of the study area. The reported capture probabilities of this study were the largest observed for any previous study conducted with wild felids, which highlight the benefits of using scat detecting dogs to estimate cougar densities. Determining the age of the cougars captured was not possible because of the use of scat; so, their estimates included adults, subadults, and juveniles old enough to leave den sites.

Citation

Davidson, G. A., Clark, D. A., Johnson, B. K., Waits, L. P., & Adams, J. R. (in press, 2014). Estimating cougar densities in northeast Oregon using conservation detection dogs. The Journal of Wildlife Management. DOI: 10.1002/jwmg.758

Available Soon

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This Blog

This blog is about dogs, dog-human relationships, and my thoughts on the origins and the domestication of dogs. When I say my thoughts, it needs qualification because much of the writing is not the result of my original thinking, but of reading research and anecdotes about dogs and humans, studies of fossils and archeological remains, anatomy, DNA, and behavior. The posts will be documented in standard fashion with author and date, and the literature cited and references are listed on a reference page or at the bottom of the post. The title comes from William Youatts’ 1846 [1857 edition] book, The Dog. On page 14 he wrote, "The dog is the only animal that is capable of disinterested affection. He is the only one that regards the human being as his companion, and follows him as his friend; the only one that seems to possess a natural desire to be useful to him, or from a spontaneous impulse attaches himself to man." Youatt’s book is remarkably insightful for the mid-19th century; he opens Chapter 1 with a comment about dogs being the most intelligent animal other than humans; notes the emotional attachments dogs and humans form, including the sense of loss when dogs loose the humans they have bonded with; and supports the idea that dogs were descended from wolves. This is an idea that was rejected and re-accepted numerous times in the 19th and 20th centuries, and one that will be discussed here.

John C. Murphy

John C. Murphy is a retired science teacher and science administrator. His most recent book Secrets of the Snake Charmer examines what we have learned about snakes in the first decade of the 21st century. Previous books include Tales of Giant Snakes, Amphibians and Reptiles of Trinidad and Tobago, and Homalopsid Snakes, Evolution in the Mud. Current interests and projects include, numerous squamate systematic projects that focus on the Neotropics and aquatic snakes. His interests also have expanded to dogs and their evolution. He is an avid photographer and a research associate in Science & Education at the Field Museum in Chicago.