a dog sitting among short green pine trees

Dogs put their noses to work saving wildlife

They don’t just detect drugs, bombs, and cancers—dogs can sniff out the amoeba-size larvae of invasive mussels and highly endangered flowers hidden in fields.

Tule, a six-year-old Belgian Malinois scouts for bear scat near southwestern Montana’s Big Hole Valley. Grizzlies have been sighted in the area after many decades, and DNA from the scat would inform biologists and land managers working to recover this threatened species where they’re coming from.

 

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