As this BBC story points out, Carly Vynne and her dog Mason are working in Brazil to better understand the movements and ranges of large mammals like armadillos and anteaters in an increasingly agricultural landscape. Vynne is currently completing her PhD at the University of Washington’s Biology Department and their Center for Conservation Biology.
In scent detection work for conservation, dogs use their incredible sense of smell to locate dens, scats, or trails used by the wild animals being studied by scientists like Vynne. These locations are then recorded and entered into a GIS map of the study area. In this way, conservation biologists are able to track the ranges and movements of these animals in a non-invasive way. Additionally, DNA is able to be extracted from found wildlife scat to determine not only species identification but also nutritional status, health, and diet. When these health data are combined with the spatial data, conservation biologists are able to determine how these animals are distributed across a landscape, and the relationship between health and location within that landscape.
From this study, Vynne and her colleagues have learned that jaguars stay almost entirely within the boundaries of Emas National Park in Brazil, while other large mammals like maned wolves range widely across the agricultural fields surrounding the park. One implication of this finding is that jaguars are currently isolated within the national park’s borders akin to being on an island, with their ability to locate new jauguar individuals for mating significantly impeded. A finding like this highlights the need for landscape planners to incorporate corridors between protected areas to allow migration among the patchwork of parks in a region.
While the maned wolf has been more successful in using agricultural lands, Vynne’s scat analysis has shown that their diet is significantly more varied within the park boundaries, and their work is ongoing to determine whether those maned wolves largely outside of park boundaries are healthier than those largely ranging within it.
Vynne and her fellow conservation biologists are expanding their conservation dog work in Brazil by establishing a dog scent detection program in Brazil, which would allow well trained dogs and their handlers to extend their work across the country.