Wolf scat detection dog improves wolf genetic monitoring in new French colonized areas

Abstract

A detection dog and handler team were used to recover scats in areas newly colonized by wolves outside the Alpine mountains of France between October 2018 and May 2019. Survey areas were classified as occupied by a resident wolf pack (WP) or dispersers (no-WP). The efficiency of monitoring by a targeted dog-handler team was compared to opportunistic monitoring by trained observers. Use of the detection dog allowed up to 99.6% time savings relative to monitoring by trained observers. Wolf scats found by the dog represented 82.1% of genetically confirmed samples in the 12 sample units (each being 10 × 10 km) monitored by both trained observers and the dog-handler team. Occupancy modelling was used to estimate wolf detection probabilities. Ten kilometres of survey with the dog were required to reach a 98% detection probability in WP territories and 20 km to reach 96% in no-WP areas. By contrast, two years of opportunistic monitoring by trained observers were required to obtain a 90% and 76% probability of detecting wolves in WP and no-WP areas, respectively. The use of the detection dog via dog-team surveys greatly increased the collection of viable samples for genetic analysis and individual genotype identification. Our study offers further confirmation that dog-handler teams can be very effective at locating scats from target carnivores, to supplement or complement human search efforts.