Conservation’s scent detectives
Western Australia’s extraordinary biodiversity presents scientists and land managers with a fundamental challenge: finding threatened species and detecting the often-invisible threats that affect them.
Increasingly, conservation detection dogs are providing an important scientific tool, using their highly developed sense of smell to detect biological traces that can be difficult for humans to discover.
Dogs have an estimated 120–200 million scent receptors, compared with around 6–20 million in humans, and their sense of smell can be up to 100,000 times more sensitive. This remarkable olfactory ability enables specially trained dogs to detect minute chemical signatures associated with wildlife, pathogens and other biological material.
Across WA, detection dogs are used to support biodiversity conservation in diverse ways – from locating cryptic and subterranean species to detecting wildlife mortality and identifying invasive species and plant pathogens.
One of their most important applications is helping to detect Phytophthora cinnamomi, the soil-borne water mould responsible for dieback disease. This highly invasive and destructive pathogen can severely affect more than 40 per cent of native plant species, with consequences extending through entire plant communities and the fauna that depend on them.
Accurately mapping its distribution is fundamental to managing the disease and limiting further spread. Detection dogs are providing a complementary approach to conventional assessment by targeting the plant pathogen rather than relying solely on visible symptoms. This allows them to search environments where signs of dieback may be absent or difficult to interpret, including nurseries, vehicles, soil and other materials capable of transporting the pathogen.
The public also has an important role in reducing the spread of dieback. Removing soil and plant material from boots, tools, bicycles and vehicles before moving between bushland sites, using cleaning stations where provided, staying on designated tracks and observing closures can all reduce the risk of inadvertently transporting the pathogen. Avoiding bushland when soils are wet and likely to adhere to footwear, tyres or equipment is particularly important.
The conservation role of detection dogs extends well beyond plant disease. Specially trained dogs are used to locate great desert skink latrines, western swamp tortoises, Pilbara leaf-nosed bat roosts and a range of reptiles and spiders. They can also assist researchers by locating bird and bat carcasses, providing valuable information for wildlife mortality surveys.
Through a partnership with the Department of Biodiversity, Conservation and Attractions’ (DBCA) animal science program, scientists are now exploring whether detection dogs can help locate trapdoor spiders, which are among Australia’s most elusive subterranean animals.
