Cost-effective scat-detection dogs: unleashing a powerful new tool for international mammalian conservation biology.

ABSTRACT: Recently, detection dogs have been utilized to collect fecal samples from cryptic and rare mammals. Despite the great promise of this technique for conservation biology, its broader application has been limited by the high cost (tens to hundreds of thousands of dollars) and logistical challenges of employing a scat-detection dog team while conducting international, collaborative research. Through an international collaboration of primatologists and the Chinese Ministry of Public Security, we trained and used a detection dog to find scat from three species of unhabituated, free-ranging primates, for less than $3,000. We collected 137 non-human primate fecal samples that we confirmed by sequencing taxonomically informative genetic markers. Our detection dog team had a 92% accuracy rate, sign

SUBMITTER: Orkin JD 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5056371 | biostudies-literature | 2016 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature