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Fred Felleman
Researchers wait for Tucker to signal where killer whale scat is by leaning in that direction. His presence allows researchers to reduce any stress on the orcas by keeping their distance.
A new study on endangered Pacific Northwest killer whales is getting noticed not just for its findings -- less salmon to eat is a much bigger stress factor than whale watching boats -- but for who helped out: namely, a black Labrador trained to detect killer whale scat.
Cited as "the dog" in the peer-reviewed study, Tucker is credited with allowing researchers to get a better sampling of the resident killer whales in waters off Washington state and Canada's British Columbia while monitoring from a distance.
"We debated about naming Tucker," lead researcher Katherine Ayres told msnbc.com, "but decided it was more 'scientific' to say 'the dog'.
"We also wanted this to be a general method that could be applied with other dogs in the future so we didn't want to make it too specific," she added. "However, you will see that he has a big -- and much deserved -- shout out in the acknowledgements."
Indeed, after thanking numerous humans, the authors concluded with: "Special thanks go to Tucker, the Conservation Canine, for his keen nose and assistance with non-invasive fecal sampling."
He did that with a nose trained to appreciate the scent of scat from killer whales, also known as orcas, up to a mile away.
"Use of a detection dog enabled us to sample at an average distance of 400 meters from the target whale(s), minimizing any potential disturbance from the research vessel," the researchers wrote in the study published Wednesday in PLoS One.
Prior to Tucker, researchers had to closely follow orca pods to find and collect scat samples. But that may lead to shy orcas staying away from research boats, Ayres said, making for a less representative sampling of the population.
With Tucker, "we were not influenced to follow whales that are naturally charismatic" to humans, such as large males or mothers with calves, said Ayres, a pet-behavior consultant who led the research while a University of Washington doctoral student in biology.
Jeanne Hyde
Researcher Katherine Ayres handles Tucker as he zeros in on the scent of killer whale scat. Tucker doesn't go into the water, he just leans over the bow in the direction the boat should travel.
The scat was used to detect hormones released by "southern resident killer whales," a population listed as endangered due to low numbers in recent years. Levels of thyroid hormones, which slowly regulate metabolism based on food availability, showed the orcas were best fed when first arriving in the Salish Sea off the coast of Washington and British Columbia.
The researchers also found that fast-acting stress hormones known as glucocorticoids, which are triggered by immediate danger and food stress, did not spike when whale watching boats reached their annual peak around the orcas.
"As Chinook salmon increased, stress levels went down," said Ayres.
The study did, however, find a cumulative impact from vessels on stress. "Say the only place in town to eat is a noisy/crowded bar," Ayres said by way of analogy. "If that bar has all the food you like and plenty of it, you might not be that bothered by the noise. However, if you are starving and the buffet only has rice and potatoes, you might start to notice the noisiness more and you might become more stressed by it."
"Fish matter most to the southern resident killer whales," added study co-author Sam Wasser, director of the University of Washington's Center for Conservation Biology. "Even if boats are important to consider, the way you minimize that impact is to keep the fish levels high," he said in a statement issued with the study.
The researchers wrote that Tucker was chosen "for its obsessive drive to play with a ball." In training, when he located a sample, he was praised with a short play session.
Out on the water, they added, "the dog indicated sample detection by changing his behavior from a relaxed sit or stand to leaning over the bow of the vessel with tensed muscles, anticipating a reward." Tucker maintained that behavior as the scent intensified, and alerted the handler when the concentration was weakening.
"As we got close to the scat, the dog often stood up and began to whimper, presumably because the scent was surrounding the vessel and he could no longer follow a concentration gradient."
Report: Divers collect whale scat to check stress
Report: Whale scat helps fertilize oceans
The technique originated with Wasser, who has applied dogs to similar studies with other species over the last decade, Ayres said.
Tucker was first deployed in 2008, and the study cements his legacy as a pioneer. "This is the first study using scat-detection dogs to locate killer whale feces," Ayres said.
Nowadays, Tucker is still used for orca studies but he's also expanded his range.
Gigs have included working on St. Lucia in the Caribbean to track iguanas. "He also was trained on moose/caribou/wolf in Alberta, Canada, in the winter time when we weren't using him for whales in the summertime." Ayres said.
"That way," she added, he has "a job almost year round."
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Please tell me this study wasn't funded with taxpayer money. I want to believe that we haven't fallen all the way over the edge just yet.
It's incredibly awful that we want to better understand the world and life around us. We should just forget about being the "thinking man" and revert to wild apes or religious sheep.
But there is no government waste. Also, by the quotes given, I am really sure we got our money's worth on this one.
By the way - LABRADOURS ROCK!
It's not much of a stretch - Tucker would eat a cat turd given a chance.
One problem. Labs love water. Keep him on a short leash. If he gets in the water, one of those killer whales will gobble him up like a seal pup.
Actually, the resident Orca pods in the Pacific NW don't eat seals - they eat only fish, primarily salmon - so it's unlikely they'll eat a dog. That said, there are transient pods that pass through these waters, and those orcas will eat mammals, but it looks like these scientists are studying the resident pods, so Tucker should be safe.
Labs are the best.
Of course, mine was smarter than the rest. She followed hand signals, with a fairly large vocabulary.
Because it's a certainty that if we don't spend taxpayer money on studying Orca poop, humanity will revert to "wild apes and religious sheep". Very scientific of you theChemist-2744479.
You join the ranks of Sarah Palin in pointing out "useless" scientific studies. Who cares if male fruit flies have disproportionately more white eyes right? Oh, wait, that's how we figured out how to map a trait on a gene. Beto_lara, I agree with you on one point. We won't revert to being wild apes or religious sheep because we already are both.
Darn I can not even get my Min-pin get off the bed- Incrediable puppies are awesome!
@logical positivist - I don't care for Sarah Palin, neither did I say that the study is "useless". If you believe that all research is of equal priority that's your prerogative; so is wayback2012's desire to know if any tax payer money was used towards this study.
Sure, Chemist, better to understand whales while Americans go homeless and hungry during economic hardtimes! Get real!!
Poor Tucker. I heard that his owners took him on a field trip to Washington, DC so that he could be awarded a special medal for scientific service.
Upon arrival, Tucker went absolutely insane. There was scat everywhere.
I picked up a stray a year ago that was 99% lab and 1% something with red short hair. He looks and acts just like a 100-pound lab, but does not like the water. Never swims, even when it's 100 degrees. Strange.
Well, at least they aren't siccing him on human beings or putting him in combat situations- and he gets some good times in the islands too.
Wow, a dog can smell Orca poop, who would have though that was possible. That is AMAZING!
Impressive that a Lab can point a whale. I'll be more impressed if he can fetch it to shore after they bag it.
"...but he's also expanded his range."
Really knows his shlt.
I think we can assume the Orca poop floats or it would not be retrievable in the first place. Having made that assumption lets also assume Orca poop is relative in size to the beast that craps it out. Next question is then why would they need a dog to smell it out? Does Orca poop not stink?
The northwest orcas are in a lot of trouble. They are so full of toxins from pollution and their small population is shrinking. I love seeing dogs in so many different roles, in this case even helping another species. Wonderful. :-)
Am I the only one that noticed that most of the people on the boat in the first picture weren't wearing PFDs but the dog is?
Clearly the dog is the smart one.
I would rather see our tax dollars go for studies like this one rather than read that our tax dollars, $20 million of them, are being used in Pakistan to develop a children's TV program.
With the economy what it is why is Obama and the Congress funding art and cultural programs in foreign countries to begin with? Why hasn't Obama stopped this gross waste of our tax dollars.
Eight comments in and it's all about Obama. You're an idiot, "waste of our tax dollars" has ben the reality in the US since taxes came to exist, it's not something Obama invented.
"Gross waste of tax dollars," you mean like the trillions spent on Bush's useless and illegal wars?
Nowhere in the article did it say ANY tax money was used for funding.
They've been cutting funding to Pakistan.
Hoodie--- See PLoS One--Sea Grant-- part of the NOAA-a federal agency.----National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration which provided a major portion of the funding.
Grishnak, that would mean Hoodie would have to face the truth! Dont think he's stable enough right now...mentally or emotionally.
Educating the children of the middle east to better norms and ethics of justice and humanity seems like a really good idea to me...They won't be so likely to become jihadists wearing bomb vests.
Good Doggy!
Who uses the term "scat"? If this is supposed to be a scientific article, then please use the scientific appropriate term of "feces."
Depends on which branch of science you are in.
Whale poop. Whale poop. How can I enjoy the Oregon coast knowing that there's whale poop being flung up in the waves and onto the beach?
Interesting that the first picture shows the boat under power and within 100 feet of the Killer Whale. Are tax exempt vessels allowed to breach federal law? Now that not only stresses the whale but people too.
Looks like that guy is getting ready to mount the dog.
Another crappy job that's gone to the dogs.
Love those labs, trained to save lives. My favorite dog - Newfies, and I have the pleasure of three. Magnificent and such noble animals. I really miss the companionship and those big loving eyes. This fine breed is a wonderful rep of dogs life eh, locating the trail of an endangered mammal, and maybe the Orcas last awhile longer. The Russians are killing their bear population to satisfy the Chinese desire for erections and cancer treatment while the poachers in Kenya are killing thousands of elephants for the ivory trade, also in China and Asia. Fortunately, the Orcas have not been discovered as an erection device.
The funding, its ok, check out the figure to that wonderful ally of ours - Pakistan. This is money well spent. Its called research and improvisation, which this country is famous for and should continue.
Obama/Biden 2012
Gotta wonder what the false positive rate was for the dog? I'll have to track down the article, but this just seems like a great opportunity for a clever hans effect here.
Never underestimate a dog...
I hope the dog helps them succeed. The Whales are amazing animals, and the world would be less without them. They also are an important "cog" in the foodchain of this ecology. They are in trouble, and its due to our actions. Over-fishing has decimated Salmon stocks, (one of their main food sources), along with other fish like Atlantic Cod. Mankind just doesn't seem to learn.. We can only take so much. We need to manage what we take, or we wipe it out. Did we not learn from the loss of the Dodo Bird? An apparently wonderful, delicious, big meat bird, that fed mankind for millennia.. That we hunted to extinction. A bird I would love to have been able to try eating. That privilege was lost forever, to all future mankind, when the last birds were killed. Properly managed, they could have been a great food source forever. Food sources are not something we can afford to lose.
We need to stop crapping in our own house. And we need to stop the people who dont care about the future, and seem hell-bent to take all they can for themselves. It is people like that who have cost us enough already.
Where are we supposed to crap? In our neighbor's house? I guess they were hungry back then. They took Dodo's and made doo-doo's out of them. It's funny when people look at living creatures and think of, What a tastey morsel for lunch it would make.
Technically, Freedom, you could volunteer as a food source in Miami.
What stresses killer whales are autographed photos of the late Richard Harris
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zg9vE3pLuso
This SURE IS another OBAMA GREEN JOB. Collecting Whale CRAP, and tending to the stresses of killer whales. Really? Really? I'm a huge nature lover,,HUGE, but come on, Like Jeff Goldblum said in Jurassic Park: "Nature Finds a way". We do not need to spend millions of private of public dollars to collect and analyze WHALE Turds! To play fair, "whales get stressed when there is less food, Really? You need all this research to figure that one out? Every Living organism on this planet,,,from Plants to insects to mammals, stress when there is a lack of food!!!!! Tomato plants, monkeys, even locusts stress based on food or nutrient resources, it is the natural order of life.
Ohhhhhh Please just stop this CRAP....(pun intended)
I think they should put this dog to better use by replacing Obama with him. I for one am confident he cous do a much better job!
I wonder how many hundreds of thousands of dollars of desperately needed stimulus money went to fund this study....LOL
Oops...seems I've stumbled into the 6th grader comment section. Which way to where the adults comment? I'd be curious to see what those who care about our planet and the animals on it, think about such a sad, but neat story. One more point for dogs and the incredible things they can do. Minus a point for the 6th graders who only got as far as the word scat before they started posting their lame comments about it.
...and your post was a complete waste of space; but you did get to practice your math skills!! Neat-o.
What stresses Killer Whales? Being chased down by a speed boat with a dog in the front!
Killer whales are scared of dogs. Little known fact.
Maybe the dog should be president since it can sense poop and respond appropriately!!
Yep, seems there no end to what the government will spend our money on, now this @!$%# smelling dog. One question how much information and knowledge is the tax payers getting out of this? or is the govt just trying to bolster the unemployment numbers for out of woirk enviromentalists and zoologists. Typical Democratic ploy.
Hell, the enviromentalist's needs to fall overboard and be eaten by a hungry Orca, save our tax money to feed the humans that are hungry.
maybe he can retrieve some of the trillions of dollars our previous regime wasted n such pork belleys programs as star wars and all those other defense programs that our current administration must bare the burden for today.
Scat? Why don't they just say whale sh!t? The word scat is nowhere to be found as pertained to animal waste.
Oops, gotta go. My golden has to go scat.
Scat--I looked it up. It means go away hastily--no mention of feces, excrement or other gastrointestinal function.
--isn't it also some kind of Jazz singing where there are no words, just a string of noises?
Laughable, wasteful vicious cycle of market-driven science. The whale's main cause of stress are possibly the "researchers" who are now showing us how sensitive they are to the whales....be really sensitive and leave them alone!
"All scientific inquiry, is, in essence, a flight from Wonder." Albert Einstein
But researchers persist, and I don't know about anybody else, but I think there's somethink wrong with a Polar Bear with a radio transmitting collar locked around is neck. All in the name of...what exactly? Until animals are treated with the same respect, we supposedly accord humans, all this scientific work is pure WASTE. Wake-up Science put some of that money toward proving beyond a doubt (though it has already been proven...) that the Systemic Pesticides of Bayer are destroying honeybees worldwide! Or is that not as much fun as riding around in a boat....
But John, the press needs to give us other things to ponder while Greenland and Antarctica melt and methane seeps faster and faster from the perma frost, or else we might be doing something destructive to the economy by moving away from the coasts to save ourselves from the tsunami that will be caused when all the ice breaks lose.