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A Lizard's Best Friend

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A Lizard's Best Friend They can cover more ground more easily with a couple of volunteers who already wildlife. I loved it. It made me realize than humans, and that makes them a lot do sea turtle nest detection with their what I had been missing by being in more efficient, a lot more effective. dogs, helping them to transfer their dogs management. When I returned to North WH: How do the dogs differentiate to horned lizards, so when the program Carolina, I resigned from that company. horned lizard scat from that of other expands, those dogs will be ready. I wanted to get back to dogs and start my reptile species? WH: Does it take a particular breed of own company. The experience of being PB: It’s the volatile organic compounds dog to do this work? in Canada with the wildlife and support- (VOCs) that are given off by the scat. In PB: No, but it does take a dog with cer- ing the oil spill response focused where a desert environment like Texas, mois- tain characteristics. You can train a stray I wanted the company to go. I also knew ture within the scat assists that process to do this, if they have the right char- that my specialization in training canines greatly. The moisture evaporates from acteristics. You need a dog with a high could be applied to conservation. You the scat due to the sun or the heat, tak- drive for a reward. The motivation to do know, most people in the conservation ing the VOCs with it and distributing this work comes from the desire for a re- canine community are environmentalists them into the air. So, that’s what the dogs ward. So, the dog must have that desire or conservationists who came into the are looking for. The actual smell of the for treats or a toy, preferably both. canine world. I’ve done it the other way scat depends on the lizard’s diet and the It must also have the physical ability to around—I’m a canine guy who has come environment. The scat of a lizard eating actually conduct surveys. They cover three into the conservation world. purely ants is going to smell different to five miles a day, sniffing all the time and WH: When you started your company, than a lizard that’s eating termites. searching. So, they can’t be short breeds Chiron K9, you moved to Texas. How WH: How do you train dogs to not chase that would struggle in thick vegetation did you connect with the Horned Lizard after a lizard? and couldn’t cope with the harsh Texas Reintroduction Project? PB: We use a technique called “passive terrain, heat and cacti. PB: I Googled “endangered species,” and A LIZARD’S BEST FRIEND And the dog has to accept training, horned lizards was on the list. I sent an response.” We teach the dogs through INTERVIEW WITH PAUL BUNKER behaviour modification that when it lo- because the dogs are worked off leash. email to the Horned Lizard Conserva- cates the odor, to be passive. It can stand They need to be able to accept directions tion Society, and [they] introduced me to In Texas, the official State Reptile, the horned lizard (Phrynosoma cornutum), is the dogs to locate lizards for rotating into and stare, it can sit, or it can lie down. If from the handler to do as they’re told. Andy Gluesenkamp, director of conser- literally losing ground. Habitat destruction resulting from human encroach- the breeding stock. it does any of those behaviours without They have to be the type that will listen. vation at San Antonio Zoo. Andy and I ment into grasslands and desert is the main driver behind a sharp decline in WH: Do the researchers capture lizards touching the target, it gets its reward. There are breeds that just wouldn’t had a meeting, and he was keen to get the numbers of this fierce-looking but harmless lizard. Other factors include the dogs find and then take them back to Through the process, the dog learns, “If accept that level of control. And they canines involved in the project. Basically, over-collecting for the pet and curio trades, competition from invasive species, the breeding laboratory to diversify the I touch this item, I get nothing. If I don’t can’t be distracted by wildlife because we that’s how it all came about. It was be- and pollution. Once abundant throughout the state, horned lizards have virtu- gene pool? touch it, I get my jackpot.” encounter deer, rabbit and other wildlife cause Andy really wanted to try canines ally disappeared east of a line stretching from Fort Worth through Austin and PB: Correct. Also, the lizards vary greatly WH: People can order a horned lizard as part of the survey. and saw the value in using them. I was in San Antonio to Corpus Christi. The species is currently listed as “threatened” in their color, depending on the terrain scat collection kit on your website. What’s Now, some breeds hold these charac- the right place, at the right time. in Texas. In 2017, San Antonio Zoo established a program to help horned they live in. Some are a deep clay-red that used for? teristics innately—Labradors, spaniels, WH: Now that you’re collaborating on lizard populations recover. They began captive-breeding horned lizards to and some are a white-beige. They take PB: We need the dogs to understand that hunt-type breeds—because that’s what the Project, how do you feel about the reintroduce into the wild. But knowing where to safely release them and then on the color of the environment where horned lizard scat has a broad spectrum they’ve been bred to do over centuries. horned lizard’s future? monitor their survival presented challenges for researchers because this well- they live for camouflage and protection. of smells. There’s a baseline smell, and But there are other dogs that have those PB: We have an opportunity to preserve camouflaged, three-to-four-inch long reptile is hard to spot on the ground. So, [The researchers] may need to collect there are variances. We need lots of dif- traits and could have a useful life sup- or even save a species. It is important to they enlisted the help of conservation detection dog trainer, Paul lizards of a particular coloring to pro- ferent samples for the dog to understand porting conservation work. me that I can contribute to the lizards’ Bunker. We were curious about how dogs can be taught to find mote a viable breeding stock that can be that this is horned lizard scat, not San WH: You had a long career in training survival so that they don’t become one lizards and called up Bunker to find out how he does it. released into a particular area. Antonio Zoo horned lizard scat. So, we dogs in explosives detection for the Brit- of the [extinction] statistics. When you WH: Why are dogs good at tracking need as many people to submit as many ish Army and US military and then oil consider that between 200 and 2000 Wild Hope: How are dogs being used you reintroduce 60 to 100 or so of these horned lizards? variations of odor as possible. spill detection for a private company in species go extinct each year, you can see in the Horned Lizard Reintroduction young lizards into a location, you’re go- PB: Dogs don’t see the world in sight, WH: How many dogs are being trained to North Carolina. How did you get into the importance of conservation projects. Program? ing to imbalance the resources that are they see the world in smells. A dog’s [ol- do this work? training conservation detection dogs? Canines can play a huge role in conser- Paul Bunker: There are three ways currently there. Any established lizard factory] sensory capability is many times PB: There’s currently one with San Anto- PB: While I was Director of the Canine vation and increasingly are doing so. canines are being integrated. [The colony could suffer because you’re sud- greater than a human’s. So, we train nio Zoo that did its proof of concept late Training Centre and Project Manager Additionally, being able to promote the Program] is trying to establish horned denly depleting resources. dogs by pairing that ability to smell min- last year. Because of the current [social of the Oil Spill Canine program at the use of canines in conservation, especially lizards in areas where they have died out Then some months after the lizards ute traces of a target odor with a reward. distancing] restrictions, we’re just start- North Carolina company, I went to rescue and pet dogs, means people, or moved on for whatever reason. So, have been released, the dogs will go To them, it’s a big game. They want to ing to get back together to resume train- Canada for four months to lead a team hopefully, will realize just how beneficial the dogs are initially used to survey an through the area again looking for find the scat and tell you where it is so ing of the dog, and we’re arranging our surveying 600 km of a riverbank where these canines can be. WH area and determine there are no lizards signs that those reintroduced lizards are they can get their reward. They can find first surveys for later this year. The hope there had been an oil spill.
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