ArticleScientific reports2016
Cost-effective scat-detection dogs: unleashing a powerful new tool for international mammalian conservation biology.
Article in Scientific reports, 2016. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 22 papers.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
22 citing papers in PubMed.
- Combining detection dogs with air extraction methodology to expose wildlife trafficking in containerized cargo.Conservation biology : the journal of the Society for Conservation Biology · 2026Article
- Canine detection for biodiversity protection: a multispecies approach to promote conservation and prevent wildlife trafficking.Frontiers in veterinary science · 2026Article
- Termite Detection Techniques in Embankment Maintenance: Methods and Trends.Sensors (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Review
- Scent detection dogs detect a species of hard tick, Dermacentor albipictus, with comparable accuracy and efficiency to traditional tick drag surveys.Parasites & vectors · 2025Article
- Landscape and conservation genetics of western black crested gibbons (Nomascus concolor) in China.American journal of primatology · 2025Article
- On the trail of a critically endangered fungus: A world-first application of wildlife detection dogs to fungal conservation.iScience · 2024Article
- Conservation detection dogs: A critical review of efficacy and methodology.Ecology and evolution · 2024Review
- Development of a modified C-BARQ for evaluating behavior in working dogs.Frontiers in veterinary science · 2024Article
- Collection of triatomines from sylvatic habitats by a Trypanosoma cruzi-infected scent detection dog in Texas, USA.PLoS neglected tropical diseases · 2023Article
- The health of working dogs in conservation in Africa.Frontiers in veterinary science · 2023Article
- Field quantifications of probability of detection and search patterns to form protocols for the use of detector dogs for eradication assessments.Ecology and evolution · 2022Article
- Two hundred and five newly assembled mitogenomes provide mixed evidence for rivers as drivers of speciation for Amazonian primates.Molecular ecology · 2022Article
- Beyond the encounter: Predicting multi-predator risk to elk (Ecology and evolution · 2022Article
- Egg masses as training aids for spotted lanternfly Lycorma delicatula detection dogs.PloS one · 2021Article
- Article
- A multiyear survey of helminths from wild saddleback (Leontocebus weddelli) and emperor (Saguinus imperator) tamarins.American journal of primatology · 2019Article
- Scent-sniffing dogs can discriminate between native Eurasian and invasive North American beavers.Scientific reports · 2019Article
- Who's a Good Handler? Important Skills and Personality Profiles of Wildlife Detection Dog Handlers.Animals : an open access journal from MDPI · 2018Article
- How Behavior of Nontarget Species Affects Perceived Accuracy of Scat Detection Dog Surveys.Scientific reports · 2018Article
- An environmental DNA sampling method for aye-ayes from their feeding traces.Ecology and evolution · 2018Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
5 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Recently, detection dogs have been utilized to collect fecal samples from cryptic and rare mammals. Despite the great promise of this technique for conservation biology, its broader application has been limited by the high cost (tens to hundreds of thousands of dollars) and logistical challenges of employing a scat-detection dog team while conducting international, collaborative research. Through an international collaboration of primatologists and the Chinese Ministry of Public Security, we trained and used a detection dog to find scat from three species of unhabituated, free-ranging primates, for less than $3,000. We collected 137 non-human primate fecal samples that we confirmed by sequencing taxonomically informative genetic markers. Our detection dog team had a 92% accuracy rate, significantly outperforming our human-only team. Our results demonstrate that detection dogs can locate fecal samples from unhabituated primates with variable diets, locomotion, and grouping patterns, despite challenging field conditions. We provide a model for in-country training, while also building local capacity for conservation and genetic monitoring. Unlike previous efforts, our approach will allow for the wide adoption of scat-detection dogs in international conservation biology.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.