CONSERVATION DOGS, 3: Conservation detection dogs get 
positive results ... we explain ahead on Passport to Texas.

This is Passport to Texas

Using their keen sense of smell (often to locate scat), 
trained conservation detection dogs assist with 
monitoring endangered wildlife, defining wildlife 
corridors and helping to eradicate invasive species.

06 -- Almost all of our work is in partnerships with non-profits, 
or agencies or sometimes universities.

Pete Coppolillo [KO-poe-lihl'-oh] is Executive Director of 
Working Dogs for Conservation in Montana. 

13 -- It's really cost effective because you can find information 
about a lot of animals without having to fly a helicopter around 
and dart them and capture them and do things like that.

Lab analysis costs are decreasing, too, making it easier to 
obtain more information from scats. Yet, some successes 
have nothing to do with wildlife.

29 -- I'll give you one example: there's a weed here in Montana 
called dyers woad that has infested large parts of Utah, and 
then it appeared here. For a long time, the expectation was 
we'll never get rid of it [because one plant can set 10,000 
seeds]. Because dogs are so good at finding it, and because 
they can find it before it flowers or sets seed, we are close to 
eradicating that plant in a place called Mount Sentinel. You 
know, it's a really powerful, scientifically rigorous tool, and it 
opens the door to doing things we hadn't dreamed of.

Learn more about conservation detection dogs at 
workingdogsforconservation.org .

For Texas Parks and Wildlife ... I'm Cecilia Nasti. 







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