Dogs similar to those used by the Washington State Department of Corrections to detect drugs and bombs are sniffing out the sex, species and individual identities of a variety of animals on behalf of the UW’s Center for Conservation Biology.

The Center developed these non-invasive means to monitor species over huge landscapes, further advancing tools to monitor the role the environment and humans have on threatened and endangered species throughout the world.

With the help of these “scat-detection” dogs, scientists learn the genetics and physiology of animals by examining their DNA gathered from the collection of their feces. From one sample, researchers can learn the sex, species and individual identity of an animal, as well as discovering the stress level and reproductive stage through hormones.

“The fundamental conservation questions are on a big scale, so we had to find less expensive ways to answer them,” says Sam Wasser, UW professor of Biology and the Center’s director. “We are applying the tools on a broad geographic scale.”

Many of the Center’s dogs are rescued from the pound and trained to track up to 18 species at once from a range of a half-kilometer. GPS tracking helps determine the exact location of each sample collected.

“We get all of this information without ever actually seeing the specific animal,” says Wasser, who also works to track DNA in the African illegal ivory trade.