| Steury Lab |
Current Research
The Distributions, Habitat Preferences, and Interactions of Three Alabama
Mesocarnivores: Mephitis mephitis,
Spilogale putorius, Mustela frenata
Project Summary
Researchers can determine an individual’s entire genetic code and assess land
and vegetation characteristics across the globe but for many species of
carnivores we often know little more than of their existence. We need to gather
current information on the status of small carnivores around the world. However,
many of the same characteristics that cause members of the Family
Carnivora to be of conservation
concern render them notoriously difficult to study. Carnivores are often elusive
and exist at low densities across large areas that are often hard to access and
inhospitable to traditional survey methods such as radio-telemetry, camera
trapping, track plates or hair snares. These methods require large time and
resource investments and often result in low sample sizes or biased results
(Long et al., 2007a). In order to
overcome these difficulties, we propose the use of scat-detection dogs to survey
throughout the state of Alabama for 3 small carnivores; Eastern Spotted Skunk (Spilogale
putorius), Striped Skunk (Mephitis
mephitis), and Long-tailed Weasel (Mustela
frenata). Little is currently known about these animals. The purpose of this
research is to create occupancy maps showing where striped skunks, eastern
spotted skunks, and long-tailed weasels are present and absent throughout the
state of Alabama. This information will then be used to determine habitat
preference using likelihood modeling and AIC ranking for each of the species so
that in the future biological and ecological data can be collected to determine
their population status and better manage for them. Possible species
interactions will also be determined from the occurrence data.
Intellectual Merit
This study will add immensely to our knowledge on striped skunks, eastern
spotted skunks and long-tailed weasels in Alabama. The habitat preferences and
species interactions seen by this project in Alabama may also be applicable in
other portions of the species’ ranges. The data collected will show us were at
least some populations of these species are present and will allow us to
determine other areas that might have populations. Once we have known
populations we can begin to conduct more focused ecological and biological
studies such as density estimates and preferred prey.
Broader Impacts
This project will result in a master’s thesis and several journal articles, as
well as presentations and demonstrations to the general public and scientific
community. Since many people have an interest in dogs because they are often
pets, the use of scat detection dogs is an excellent way to engage people in
research and conservation. The distribution maps produced by this project can be
used by a variety of people from those interested in conserving land important
to these species, to future researchers, to timber companies interested in
managing harvest in the species’ favor, to the public health department for
determining areas with a higher risk of rabies. This study is a first and
necessary stage in a much larger, more in-depth, long-term project planned to
study and monitor carnivores throughout Alabama. The successful use of scat
detection dogs should greatly enhance our ability to find and monitor elusive
mesopredators in a way less invasive than done previously. Hopefully, the data
collected in this study will lead to a better understanding of the needs of
these species allowing for future management and if needed recovery plans.
| Skunk Scat |
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Weasel Scat |
We have two Labrador Retrievers bred and trained by AU's CDRI. They are 5 year old siblings. Blaze, the blond female, is trained to find Eastern Spotted Skunk scat. She is a very independent and would work all the time if I let her. Bishop, the black male, is trained to find Striped Skunk scat. He keeps a gentleman's pace when working and enjoys making his tennis balls as slobbery as possible. We are hoping to soon train another dog to find Long-tailed Weasel scat.
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| Blaze | Bishop |
Although dogs have been used to find wildlife for research and conservation
since the late 1800’s, it wasn’t until the 1990’s that a systematic and
replicable protocol to train and use dogs to locate scat samples from specific
target species was developed (MacKay et al., 2008).
Dogs have a very sensitive sense of smell (3ppm to 500ppt), which enables them
to detect specific multiple (18+) odors at distances over 0.25 mi (0.4 km) away
(Bryson, 1991). This allows them to locate even small cryptic scats in a variety
of habitats over a large area and to discriminate between scats of target and
non-target species. The locations of scat samples can provide information on
animal movements, home range, habitat, and resource use measures (Wasser
et al., 2004). Collected scats can
provide species and individual identification, sex, reproductive state, stress
levels, health, population abundance, and diet (MacKay
et al., 2008). Scat detection dogs have been used on a variety of projects
including locating whale scat in the ocean and discriminating among individual
Amur tigers.
Scat dogs have been compared to a variety of
more traditional methods and are the most efficient and accurate way of
determining the presence/absence of a species in a given area (Long
et al., 2007; Harrison, 2006; Gompper
et al., 2006). Detection dogs are also
a very charismatic “tool” that helps to broaden the public appeal of
conservation research.
Further Readings List and Recommended Book: Noninvasive Survey Methods for Carnivores By Robert A. Long et al. 2008
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Overview of Dog Training
Scat is solicited from captive animals and collected from wild individuals over
a wide geographic range from a variety of individuals of both sexes with a range
of diets. The scat is then used to train and evaluate the scat detection dogs.
Our dogs are purchased from Auburn Universities’
Canine Detection
Training Center (CDRI) which specializes in training
narcotic and bomb detection dogs.
There the dogs are trained in a manner
similar to that used for other scat detection surveys
2-3 months
prior to the beginning of the field season
(MacKay et al., 2008). The dogs are selected
for specific attributes (e.g., high drive, object orientation, appropriate
temperament) and are first trained to associate the scent of a single target
species’ scat with a reward (i.e., a tennis ball). The dogs are then trained to
indicate; sit and stay at the site of located scat.
Scat detection rates
and distances are tested to determine optimal survey patterns and possible
limitations (weather effects, amount of time the dog can work each day at high
accuracy, etc) before the beginning of the field season. Throughout the field
season known scats are placed along transects to establish likelihood and
distance of scat detection and to keep the dogs motivated.
Spring Break 2009: Trapped for skunks and weasels to collect scat samples from wild individuals. We did not catch any of the target species but we did collect non-target scat needed to train the dogs.
Summer and Fall 2009: Scat samples were donated to the
project. Thank you to our many participants!
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Acknowledgements
I would like to thank all those who have participated in this project. Many have collected and shipped scat, allowed me onto their property, helped with the dogs, provided funding, or helped with the numerous other aspects of this project.
