This pup couldn't hack it as a drug-sniffing dog, so now, he sniffs out the poop of elusive animals in the name of conservation
Train, a Chesapeake Bay retriever, sniffs out the scat, or poop, of elusive wild animals like jaguars and oncillas in the name of conservation. It might sound like an unsavory task, but these scat samples are goldmines for researchers like Train's owner, conservation biologist Karen DeMatteo.DeMatteo and a research team in Argentina are trying to pinpoint the habitats of endangered animals, but it's hard to figure out where they live if you can't find the animals themselves.
As it turns out, Train couldn't care less that he was searching for poop instead of drugs -- all he wanted was a ball to play with at the end.His high energy may have hampered him in narcotics school, but it was a welcome trait in Argentina, where he trekked through vast stretches of wilderness. Last year, Train covered about 1,000 kilometers of Argentinian forest in search of animal droppings."Train was just a machine," DeMatteo says.
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