Dogs help find Australia’s most imperiled lizard
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In Victoria, Australia, scientists from Zoos Victoria trained dogs to locate the droppings of the Victorian grassland earless dragon, a critically endangered reptile.
This lizard, only rediscovered in 2023, is incredibly small, about the size of a person’s pinky finger, and lives in shrinking grassland habitats. Researchers hoped the dogs could help monitor the species by finding their scat, which provides information about their health and location.
The team trained seven dogs, including Sugar and Moss, to identify the dragon’s droppings, which resemble tiny grains of rice. The dogs successfully distinguished between the dragon’s scat and that of other reptiles, even differentiating between wild and captive samples. However, field surveys proved difficult because the dragon’s scat disappeared quickly. Investigations revealed that ants and other insects scavenged over a third of the scat within 24 hours of placement in the grasslands.
Because of this, and the low population density of the lizards, the team shifted its focus to training the dogs to locate the dragons themselves, including inside their preferred shelter, wolf spider burrows. This work aims to aid in the conservation of the species and its grassland habitat.
