Dogs Used to Find Endangered Species

Dogs are often used to find drugs, bombs, and track people because of their heightened sense of smell. Now, scientists are using dogs to find rare endangered species, like the dog Rogue in the video searching for rare Kincaid's lupine, an endangered plant where endangered Fender's blue butterfly lays pin-sized eggs. The Scientist reports:

Greg Fitzpatrick, Corvallis Land Steward for the Nature Conservancy in Oregon, says the idea of using dogs to pick out plants first came to him when he read in a local newspaper that Dave Vesely was using dogs to track a rare turtle. "It seemed to me that if a dog could find the nests of a turtle, a dog could also be trained to find a plant at its peak time of flowering." On his mind was the Kincaid's lupine, whose peak flowering period is only two weeks long, some time from April through July. "The dog is using his nose; we're using our eyes and trying to find small, flowering plants in a blackberry thicket, for instance, is time-consuming and not always successful."

Read More in: Pets | environment

Share this Article with others:

Related Articles:

• 6 Months Later: Is Our Food Still Radioactive from Japan's Nuclear Fallout? - Sep 08, 2011
• Exxon "Whitewashes" Yellowstone River Oil Spill - Jul 14, 2011
• LeafSnap App Makes Tree Identification Easy - Jun 14, 2011

Came straight to this page? Visit Really Natural for all the latest news.