Teaching old dogs and young dogs new tricks: canine scent detection for seabird monitoring

Abstract

Dogs Canis familiaris have been domesticated for over 11,000 years and have been trained to perform a vast array of tasks. Scent dogs are routinely used to detect elusive animals of conservation concern as well as the presence of invasive nonnative predators. However, a recent review of studies on scent dogs for nature conservation found few peer-reviewed papers on detection of seabirds, and we suggest the potential of scent dogs for seabird monitoring is currently under-utilised. To stimulate wider consideration of the use of scent dogs for seabird monitoring we: (i) document the training, testing and performance of a one-year old Golden Retriever, to detect scent from European Storm Petrels Hydrobates pelagicus, and to differentiate between scent of European Storm Petrels and Manx Shearwaters Puffinus puffinus, and (ii) report on the field performance of a 12-year old Border Collie to detect Manx Shearwaters breeding in natural nest burrows and artificial nest boxes. We show that these individual dogs had a high success rate in locating hidden seabird targets by scent in experimental and field settings and we highlight some of the set-backs encountered during the training process, and their solutions. We show that the detection of occupied Manx Shearwater burrows is dependent on their depth and recent history of occupation. Our results highlight the potential value of scent dogs to establish the presence of particular seabird species at sites where breeding status is currently uncertain, and to map the extent of occupied areas. Further work is needed to validate the use of scent dogs to determine seabird breeding density in real-world situations, where detection probability may be influenced by nest site characteristics and breeding density. We stress the need to involve professionals in the selection, training and testing of scent dogs.