Using Dogs To Sniff Out Endangered Species

You have probably heard of dogs being trained to find hidden drugs, bombs, even cell phones. Well, there are also dogs whose highly developed sense of smell is being used to find endangered species.

An issue of The Scientist reported that conservationists are training dogs to track down rare species of plants. Many of those species are extremely hard for humans to find.

In the video below, you can see John Vesely, executive director of the Oregon Wildlife Institute, and Rogue the Belgian sheepdog sniffing out the Kincaid's lupine, an endangered plant that is host to a rare, endemic butterfly found only in Northwest Oregon.