And that’s a wrap! Season two of detection-dog-led scat collection for diet and genetic research on the Alexander Archipelago Wolf. We ended up with over 600 samples! Barley (black and white) found the majority of our samples in his final year as lead dog on the Island Wolf Project.
Barley the detection dog has been having a fabulous final season on the Island Wolf Project. This week while on a remote coast in Alaska, he found several wolf scats just below high tide line. Next up: metabarcoding and genotyping the scats to learn more about Alexander Archipelago wolves.
Saying goodbye to the SS Soggy Spaniel for 2025! Our Island Wolf Project is moving to our road-based surveys for a few weeks before heading north to Kuiu and surrounding islands on a different research vessel. We’re at 400 wolf scats and counting!
This is the whole point. Yes, the next-generation sequencing is cool. Yes, detection training is my passion. Yes, I love reading and am learning to love data analysis.
But this. This is what it’s about. My best guy and me searching the wilderness for scats.
We found a wolf canine last week in Alaska. Look at the size difference in compared to my 50 pound border collie’s canine!
Yesterday we did a 12km search on an island in the Tongass Nat’l Forest looking for wolf scat. Niffler the detection dog stepped near a wolf track, and look at the size difference! Niffler is about 50lb, border collie.
The weather has finally given us a window, and the wolf scat detection dog crew is pushing ahead with 6 days of back to back surveys across 5 islands in southeast Alaska. Pictured: Barley on Warren Island.
Iitooma is our newest K9 recruit. He’s with me in Alaska learning to sniff out wolf scat. His internship is going well!
We're thrilled to be offering our online LIVE handler course for aspiring K9 Conservationists. If you've ever wanted to learn to work in wildlife biology/conservation alongside detection dogs, now's your chance. Please share widely <3
Field gear for 3 people, 3 conservation detection dogs, and 3.5 months. Year 2 of Alaskan island wolf research kicks off this week. We’re stoked!
I'm a published scientist! Along with the teams at Action for Cheetahs in Kenya and K9 Conservationists, I've been working for about 4 years on a project to help cheetah scat detection dogs not alert to leopard and caracal scat. And now we're in Cognition!
link.springer.com/article/10.1...
DOGE cuts are potentially hitting our biosecurity dog programs. These dogs are faster and more effective than any other available method, and are vital for protecting our native species and agriculture from pests and disease. Thanks @nbcnews.com for chatting with me about this!
One of my favorite talks at the African Canines in Conservation Conference explored training village dogs as trackers and detection dogs to aid antipoaching units. Importing a dog from Europe is the norm now, which can cost $5,000+. The pups performed well but they’re still refining the process!
It’s been amazing meeting everyone at the African Canines in Conservation Conference. I gave a keynote talk about troubleshooting training. Today’s conference closer is about the Conservation Dog Alliance, a knowledge-sharing group I co-founded. I have no voice and I’m exhausted but I’m so happy!
Last weekend we had a celebration of life for my dear friend and student Sade. The conservation dog community lost two gems when she and Simba left us. They’re sorely missed but it was so healing to get together to laugh, cry, and eat.
Be kinder to queer people. Make good trouble. Love your dogs.
Niffler is my younger detection dog. He's on day 4 of learning to detect wolf scat so that he can come sniff out oodles of it for my PhD work and Alaska Department of Fish and Game's research on the Alexander Archipelago Wolves. He's doing so well <3
youtu.be/pL71_-MHyQI
Don’t worry we’re already lobbing @taaltree.bsky.social on this!
Volunteer at a shelter? I used to get a good husky pluck every so often!
Not exaggerating when I say I would like a personal, handwritten apology from every pundit who barfed out a dozen "the left wants to change the way you talk!" op-eds based on non-mandatory guidelines in obscure PDFs.
I haven’t! On a grad student budget so the robots feel expensive!
So gross! Poor dude is SO itchy.
Barley is itchy but doing just fine. He’s already ready to head back out! The humans? We’ve got the heebie-jeebies. The whole Texas team deserves a medal for this challenging project.
We do our best to not take chances with parasites given the possibility of disease. Heather called a local vet who suggested monitoring - the seed ticks should fall off on their own. Attempting to wash/comb/tweeze out ticks this small near the eye is likely to cause issues.
Fieldwork is TOUGH. While we love detecting data alongside our dogs… it can get ugly. Today Barley got a horrible eyeful of seed ticks. He is treated with Bravecto, a Seresto collar, AND his work vest is covered in Permethrin.
Yes! Check out Lindsay Ware, Science Dogs of New England. She’s in Maine.
It might be a sign of some core strength that could be improved, possibly!
It seems somewhat individual what a given dog finds exciting, and sadly we can’t interview them as to why!
The jackal would be super interesting as a non-neutered canid of a different species!
Hello to all my new friends thanks to @ologies.bsky.social - please let me know if you have lingering Qs after the episode. I’m so excited to meet yall!
Yes, we’re hiring - opportunities tab on k9conservationists.org
I am so incredibly excited and grateful to share information about dogs, conservation, and everything that connects the two on @ologies.bsky.social !!
open.spotify.com/episode/3jpY...
