[Animals] How to make this dog to find so many sea turtle nests?

[FNX Magokiler]

From May to October, in the southeastern United States, five species of turtles, from the loggerhead sea turtle to the Kemp's ridley, crawl ashore under the cover of night to lay their eggs on the same beach where they were born.

During this time, thousands of turtle-loving volunteers comb the shorelines for the reptiles' tracks as part of an ongoing effort to collect po[CENSORED]tion data and protect nests from predators and human disturbance.

However, footprints in the sand can be deceptive, as female turtles often make "false tracks," leaving the water but returning without laying eggs. And because sea turtles disturb large stretches of sand to hide their nests from predators, human watchers often have to guess where the eggs are located.

Now, a new study suggests that man's best friend may do better. A scent-detecting dog named Dory located sea turtle eggs more accurately than human volunteers, according to recent experiments published in the journal PLOS ONE.

“Conservation sniffers” like Dory could help scientists get a more complete picture of sea turtle nesting habits, crucial information when all U.S. sea turtle species are threatened or endangered. of extinction, says the director of the study, Rebekah Lindborg, a conservationist in Disney's Animals, Science and Environment division.

 

 

A friendly competition
Lindborg partnered with Pepe Peruyero, a dog behaviorist and former police K9 handler who has been training scent detection dogs for more than 20 years. Peruyero chose Dory, a two-year-old terrier mix rescue dog found wandering along a Florida highway, as the model for the project.

During months of training on a 15-by-15-square-meter artificial beach, Peruyero trained Dory to be alert for the smell of "sewer mucus," a sticky substance that coats freshly laid sea turtle eggs, with Lindborg. as a guide.

The team then convinced the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission to allow friendly competition.

During the peak nesting seasons of 2017 and 2018, two dueling groups patrolled a stretch of coastline about five miles long in Vero Beach, Florida.

Some days, Dory and Lindborg were in charge of pinpointing the location of the sea turtle eggs based on Dory's sense of smell. The rest of the time, he relied on a team of volunteers, some with a year of experience, others with decades of dawn patrols under their belts.

 

https://www.nationalgeographic.es/animales/2023/09/perro-olfato-encontrar-nidos-tortugas-marinas