School of Science, Engineering and Environment, University of Salford, Salford, United Kingdom.
Wessex Water, Bath, United Kingdom.
PLoS One. 2023 Jun 7;18(6):e0285084. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0285084. eCollection 2023.
Detection dogs are increasingly used to locate cryptic wildlife species, but their use for amphibians is still rather underexplored. In the present paper we focus on the great crested newt (Triturus cristatus), a European species which is experiencing high conservation concerns across its range, and assess the ability of a trained detection dog to locate individuals during their terrestrial phase. More specifically, we used a series of experiments to document whether a range of distances between target newts and the detection dog (odour channelled through pipes 68 mm in diameter) affects the localisation, and to assess the ability and efficiency of target newt detection in simulated subterranean refugia through 200 mm of two common soil types (clay and sandy soil, both with and without air vents to mimic mammal burrows, a common refuge used by T. cristatus). The detection dog accurately located all individual T. cristatus across the entire range of tested distances (0.25 m- 2.0 m). The substrate trials revealed that the detection dog could locate individuals also through soil. Contrary to existing studies with detection dogs in human forensic contexts, however, detection was generally slower for T. cristatus under sandy soil compared to clay soil, particularly when a vent was absent. Our study provides a general baseline for the use of detection dogs in locating T. cristatus and similar amphibian species during their terrestrial phase.
检测犬越来越多地被用于定位隐匿的野生动物物种，但它们在两栖动物中的应用仍相当未被探索。在本研究中，我们专注于欧洲大蝾螈（Triturus cristatus），这是一种在其分布范围内受到高度保护关注的物种，并评估了经过训练的检测犬在其陆地阶段定位个体的能力。具体来说，我们进行了一系列实验，以记录目标蝾螈与检测犬之间的一系列距离（通过直径为 68 毫米的管道输送气味）是否会影响定位，以及评估目标蝾螈在模拟地下避难所中的检测能力和效率，模拟的地下避难所是欧洲大蝾螈常见的避难所，通过 200 毫米两种常见的土壤类型（粘土和沙土，都有和没有通风口，以模拟哺乳动物洞穴）。检测犬准确地定位了所有个体的欧洲大蝾螈，测试距离范围从 0.25 米到 2.0 米。然而，与检测犬在人类法医背景下的现有研究相反，土壤试验表明，检测犬也可以通过土壤定位个体。与粘土相比，沙土中的检测速度通常较慢，特别是当没有通风口时。我们的研究为检测犬在定位欧洲大蝾螈和类似的陆地两栖动物物种提供了一般的基准。
