Canines can be crucial in furthering conservation goals by protecting animals against poaching, locating certain animals, and collecting data on hard to reach species.

Conservation Canine teams can be useful in many different facets of wildlife protection. Some of these uses include data collection, locating certain animals, and protecting against poaching. Conservation canine teams are invaluable to furthering the goals of animal conservation.

Conservation canines are used for data collection due to their unique ability to locate certain plants and animals by smell. This is useful to conversationalists because it allows them to collect data regarding population and the location of endangered and otherwise hard-to-find species. Dogs’ smell and tracking abilities are especially helpful because of their intelligence and can be trained to locate and track certain scents, making them 88.71% more effective than all other methods in locating certain species of interest. This data that is collected is instrumental in tracking the effects of conservation efforts and ensuring populations of endangered species stay stable and continue to grow.

Similarly to their role in collecting data, conservation canines are useful for locating endangered and invasive species. Locating these species is imperative as it allows researchers and conservation organizations to know where to focus their efforts in order to protect endangered species. The information collected also allows researchers to effectively keep tabs on invasive species and aid in the efforts to limit the effects they have on the natural environment, especially when time is of the essence, as trained canines can locate target species 40% faster than other methods. Without dogs, these species would be incredibly difficult to locate, potentially delaying conservation rescue efforts in not being able to effectively determine where to concentrate their focus.

One of the more intense uses of canines in conservation is anti-poaching work. Dogs can be trained to sniff out contraband such as illegal weapon parts, smuggled animals, and body parts of poached animals. Additionally, canines can be trained to directly protect animals and stop poachers by locating them in advance and attacking them if necessary, to defend the endangered animals. These canines and their ability to sniff out danger, act as another level of preventative protection for endangered species.

Canines can often play crucial roles in the outcome of animal conservation efforts. They can be extremely valuable to researchers in collecting data, assisting organizations to locate critical species, and protecting endangered species. Organizations like Soldiers For Wildlife have entire teams centered around training dogs into becoming powerful forces for good in the world of conservation. These pups have undoubtedly had an amazing impact on animal conservation and their work should not be underestimated.

Image Credit: Real Africa