Sniffing out trouble

Working dogs could be answer to aquatic invaders

—————

For all those frightened by the prospect of Montana’s lakes getting coated with nonnative mussels and wondering how the aquatic invaders can be stopped, help may be on the way from one of man’s best friends — dogs.

There’s no known way to remove the mussels once they’ve entered a water body, so the focus has been on prevention — stopping invaders hitchhiking rides into Montana aboard boats and other watercraft.

But while zebra mussels are small as adults, they can also exist as tiny free-swimming larvae known as veligers, making it extremely difficult for roadside inspectors to find them. And mussels not only attach to hulls, propellers and anchors — they can be found inside bait tanks, pontoons and even water-cooled engines.

The answer may be not to look for mussels but to smell them. That’s something dogs can do. California and Minnesota now have dogs on staff helping detect zebra mussels and other aquatic invaders.

The Flathead Basin Commission learned more about the idea during their Feb. 12 meeting in Kalispell. Pete Coppolillo and Megan Parker, of Bozeman-based Working Dogs For Conservation, brought one of their dogs along to demonstrate his skills.

“We’re not allowed to bring mussels into Montana, so we’re using wolverine scat,” Coppolillo explained as Pepin ran through the wet snow outside the Flathead National Forest Supervisor’s Office and quickly found the hidden scat.

Pepin, a Belgian malinois, began training when he was a puppy and is now eight years old. He’s been trained to locate 19 different scents and he’s handled five at a time, Coppolillo explained. Pepin’s also worked in foreign countries — in Zambia, he helped locate illegal snares, cheetahs, wild dogs, lions and the rare cross river gorilla.

Coppolillo has a Ph.D. in ecology and is Working Dogs’ executive director. Parker has a Ph.D. in wildlife biology and is the director of research. They’ve used dogs to help in conservation efforts in 18 states, including grizzly research in the Centennial Valley of Montana, and most recently in Myanmar, Southeast Asia.

A project in California involved protecting kit foxes on the Endangered Species Act list from impacts by a giant solar energy project.

“The dogs located 1,298 kit fox scat and were never wrong once,” Coppolillo said.

Dogs can be used to find animals and plants — including spotted knapweed. They can tell the difference between brook trout and rainbow trout — even if they just sniff a water sample where the fish swam.

The dogs are taught to sit down once they locate the source of the scent and wait for their reward, Parker said — typically a toy they can chomp down on and toss around.

Working Dogs typically gets their dogs from animal shelters, Parker said. About one in 1,500 dogs can be trained for conservation detection work.

“They’re usually work-breed dogs,” she said. “They have high energy and are very obsessive compulsive.”

The cost for a dog is minimal, Coppolillo said — training for the dog and training for the handler could be a couple thousand dollars. He said his group could easily provide six dogs to Montana within a year.

“We want to partner with Montana on aquatic invaders,” he said. “We want this to be a model for the nation. This won’t just benefit the basin but also neighboring states. And we could help find funding.”

Coppolillo also noted that dogs provide an educational outreach benefit.

“People love dogs,” he said.