Scent of a frog: Can conservation detection dogs be used to locate endangered amphibians in the wild?

Abstract

In recent years, the potential to locate endangered animals using scent trained detection dogs (conservation detection dogs) has gained attention. Among vertebrates, conservation detection dogs have demonstrated a remarkable capacity to detect the scent of endangered mammals, reptiles, and birds, but their use in detecting amphibians is only beginning to be explored. A lack of work in this area is surprising given that amphibians are declining faster than any other vertebrate taxa. Moreover, amphibians are generally small, highly cryptic and breed in complex habitats, making them difficult to locate for the purpose of monitoring or establishing conservation breeding programs. This study aimed to provide a preliminary investigation into whether conservation detection dogs can be imprinted on the scent of the critically endangered Baw Baw frog (Philoria frosti) under captive conditions, and then effectively trained to locate wild frogs in their complex natural habitat. Two conservation detection dogs were trained to identify and locate P. frosti scent under controlled conditions before assessing their ability to locate wild P. frosti. Both conservation detection dogs were effective at locating P. frosti scent under controlled conditions, and also demonstrated an ability to detect live frogs under natural conditions. From an applied perspective, our findings provide new evidence that conservation detection dogs are capable of learning to detect the scent of small, cryptic anuran species. They also indicate that detection dogs are capable of locating frogs in highly complex forest habitat, confirming their untapped potential to aid in the management of imperiled species that have previously proven difficult to detect, monitor, and protect. We discuss the limitations of our approach and provide recommendations to help direct future amphibian conservation detection dog research.