Breeding and Non-breeding Survival of Lesser Prairie-Chickens in Texas

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USE OF DOGS IN WILDLIFE RESEARCH AND
MANAGEMENT
1David K. Dahlgren, R. Dwayne Elmore, Deborah A.
Smith, Aimee Hurt, Edward B. Arnett, and John W.
Connelly Kansas Department of Wildlife, Parks,
and Tourism, Region 1 Office, Hays, KS 67601,
USA
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Prologue

• My dog, by the way, thinks I have much to learn
  about partridges Aldp Leopold.
• Aldo Leopold with Flick (German shorthaired
  pointer) at the Riley Game Cooperative. Photo
  Courtesy of the Aldo Leopold Foundation,
  www.aldoleopold.org.

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Introduction

• Dogs may seem like an outdated tool, and use of
  dogs may seem elementary, however using dogs can
  provide many types of field-based data collection
  otherwise unavailable to human-observers.
• Dogs can offer a unique skill set in collection
  of data Scenting abilities and ground
  coverage/speed.
• New techniques (e.g., GPS) are available that
  improve the quality of data collected by dogs

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Types of Dogs

• Sporting and Hound Breeds

• Herding Breeds

• Innate interest in Game
• Selected/inherited traits that are desirable
• Must consider breed differences
• Show vs. Field Lines within a breed (field lines
  more useful)
• Individual traits may vary more than breed traits

• Have been used for other wildlife tasks
• Herding or protection
• High intelligence and cooperation
• Can be used in non-game data collection (e.g.,
  Scat and tortoise detection)

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General Information on Use of Dogs

• Uses

• 5 Scientific Standards

• Far superior detection abilities
• Climatic conditions affect scenting conditions
• Individual dogs differ
• GPS Units designed for dogs Examples -GarminTM
  Astro, RoamEOTM
• Safety Concerns

• Same dog (s)
• Physically fit and trained
• Similar Climate
• Restrict search period (time of day)
• Balance search efforts equal number of dogs and
  researchers per unit and area

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Locating Wildlife

• Objectives

• Techniques

• Counting Animals
• Distribution of Animals
• Habitat Use
• Demographic Info
• Density Estimates

• Distance Sampling
• Belt Transects
• Rare or declining species

Yellow rail are more easily located by pointing
dogs
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GPS Data ExampleCollected with a GarminTM Astro
UnitExample of a transect within a 40.5 ha plot
to monitor greater sage-grouse using pointing
dogs on Parker Mountain, Utah, 2009. Data was
collected using Garmin Astro GPS units. Transect
line spacing was designed to reduce redundancy in
the dogs path, and to allow for distance
sampling procedures. A problem with this design
is that grouse detected at the corners do not
have a perpendicular distance to transect line.
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Example of Frequency Data Collected by Dogs
An example of greater sage-grouse use data
collected with pointing dogs in 40.5ha
experimental plots on Parker Mountain, Utah,
20032004 (see Dahlgren et al. 2006). These data
show a preference for Tebuthiuron (spike a
chemical treatment) treated plots for both grouse
in general, and broods specifically. Using dogs
allowed the classification of sage-grouse by age
and sex, which benefited this project
specifically designed to improve late
brood-rearing habitat.
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Authors Dogs Used to Find Greater Sage-grouse
Leks in Utah
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Specimen and Carcass Collection

• Examples of Uses

• Advantages

• Dogs have been show to find 92 of sparrow
  carcasses compared to 45 for human searchers.
• Bat carcasses around wind facilities where dogs
  located 71 and 81 of carcasses at two sites,
  while humans only found 42 and 14, at the same
  sites, respectively

• Carcass detection
• Wind Farms
• Fence Mortality
• Poison or Disease Events
• Example Dogs used to collect ducks dying from
  botulism, and were able to quickly select live
  specimens

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Carcass Collection Example
Researcher Ed Arnett, Bat Conservation
International,  searches for dead bats and birds
beneath wind turbines with his Labrador retriever
at a facility in south-central Pennsylvania.
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Scat Detection

• Overview

• Characteristics

• Emerging Field (see MacKay et al 2008)
• Scat of many different mammalian Predators
• Find more and quicker than human searchers

• Sporting and Non-sporting Breeds, even mixed
  breeds
• Takes high reward drive from dog much like law
  enforcement dogs (not all dogs make good
  candidates)
• Specialized training needed

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Scat Detection Example
After alerting her handler to bear scat (upper
center of photo) by sitting next to the sample,
the scat-detection dog now ignores the scat while
chewing on her reward toy while her handler
prepares to label and collect the sample.  
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Capturing and Marking Wildlife

• Advantages

• Examples

• Mountain Lion capture (hounds)
• Bear Capture (hounds)
• Grouse chick capture (pointing dogs)

• More effective and efficient
• Used for birds, mammals, and others

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Studies of Wildlife Behavior

• Underutilized Technique
• Predator Simulation
• Can be used in Wildlife Damage Management

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Wildlife Damage Management

• Uses

• Examples

• Livestock Guard Dogs
• Predator Management
• Urban Geese Control
• Detection Dogs

• Pyrenees and Akbash Livestock Dogs
• Border Collies chasing geese on golf courses
• Dogs used to detect brown snakes in Guam to
  control invasion
• Bear Control
• Karelian Bear Dogs and Laika Dogs

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Training and Handling

• Most important issue with field data collection!
• Lack of training is the most prone issue for
  frustration in the field!
• Proper use of Electronic Collars (seek
  professional advice)
• Many books available
• Scat Detection takes specialized training
• Consider using a professional training, may be
  worth the cost
• Bond formed with the dog can be highly rewarding

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SUMMARY

• Dogs bring a unique skill set to field-based data
  collection
• Dogs can be used for many techniques including
  Locating, Carcass Collection, Scat Detection,
  Capturing and Marking, Studying Wildlife
  Behavior, and Managing Wildlife Damage
• Many breeds and types of dogs can be used,
  however, sporting, hound, and herding breeds are
  most popular
• Training is the number one need before heading
  into the field for data collection