>>Specially trained sniffer dogs are helping researchers involved in the national scientific survey of Australian species to find important locations for conservation protection.

While detection dogs are usually used to find drugs, ecologist Amanda Hancock and her husband Lloyd, of Saddler Spring Education Centre, have trained their team of dogs to search for rare and elusive animals including the Julia Creek dunnart and the nationally endangered northern quoll.

The dogs and their handlers joined 30 scientists and field researchers from around the country taking part in the national Bush Blitz program on the Carnarvon Station Reserve, 200 kilometres south of Emerald in central Queensland this week.<<

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-10-12/specially-trained-dogs-sniff-out-rare-australian-animals/5807396

Very important work as wildlife has been decimated so much by introduced animals with only small areas left where they still survive. This will permit protection of important locations and hopefully safeguard remaining animals.

…then eat them.

OCDC said:

…then eat them.

Nah, probably just sniff them all over, then cock a leg and pee on them.

We have a local academic training bees to track down ants.

Teleost said:

We have a local academic training bees to track down ants.

What do the bees do once they have found the ants?

Carmen_Sandiego said:

Teleost said:

We have a local academic training bees to track down ants.

What do the bees do once they have found the ants?

dance?

bees are gifted with dance steps.

that is my guess

Carmen_Sandiego said:

Teleost said:

We have a local academic training bees to track down ants.

What do the bees do once they have found the ants?

Come home and dance figure 8’s

Dogs have been trained to sniff out burrowing animals for thousands of years. Trouble with using them with rare animals is that it’d scare the rare animals half to death. Being sniffed by a dog even scares some humans.

Teleost said:

We have a local academic training bees to track down ants.

On QI one of their questions was “what do bees do as well as dogs?” – the answer was smelling.

mollwollfumble said:

Dogs have been trained to sniff out burrowing animals for thousands of years. Trouble with using them with rare animals is that it’d scare the rare animals half to death. Being sniffed by a dog even scares some humans.

Teleost said:

We have a local academic training bees to track down ants.

On QI one of their questions was “what do bees do as well as dogs?” – the answer was smelling.

Bees know that some people smell threatening and that some don’t.

roughbarked said:

mollwollfumble said:

Dogs have been trained to sniff out burrowing animals for thousands of years. Trouble with using them with rare animals is that it’d scare the rare animals half to death. Being sniffed by a dog even scares some humans.

Teleost said:

We have a local academic training bees to track down ants.

On QI one of their questions was “what do bees do as well as dogs?” – the answer was smelling.

Bees know that some people smell threatening and that some don’t.

detecting pheromones?

ratty one said:

roughbarked said:

mollwollfumble said:

Dogs have been trained to sniff out burrowing animals for thousands of years. Trouble with using them with rare animals is that it’d scare the rare animals half to death. Being sniffed by a dog even scares some humans.

On QI one of their questions was “what do bees do as well as dogs?” – the answer was smelling.

Bees know that some people smell threatening and that some don’t.

detecting pheromones?

possibly but don’t quote me on it. I have simply observed how bees react to different smells and this can also be the smell of different people. A lack of knowledge about bees could cause one to give off all sorts of smells that bees will react to.

ratty one said:

roughbarked said:

mollwollfumble said:

Dogs have been trained to sniff out burrowing animals for thousands of years. Trouble with using them with rare animals is that it’d scare the rare animals half to death. Being sniffed by a dog even scares some humans.

On QI one of their questions was “what do bees do as well as dogs?” – the answer was smelling.

Bees know that some people smell threatening and that some don’t.

detecting pheromones?

I have a wild bee hive close to me and normally I can walk around the hive, but if I have something different with a strong odour one of two bees will commonly attack. Was fitting some lino and took it into the drive to measure and cut, but the smell was too much for the bees and several attacked me and every time I went near it they would do so again. So definitely influenced by strong smells, therefore any different smelling person approaching their hive they are likely to be also attacked.

In the bush I often encounter wild hives and if I approach too close, I usually end up running quickly away. They are a damn nuisance as there are a couple of areas I would like to visit, but bees won’t let me anywhere near.

PermeateFree said:

ratty one said:

roughbarked said:

Bees know that some people smell threatening and that some don’t.

detecting pheromones?

I have a wild bee hive close to me and normally I can walk around the hive, but if I have something different with a strong odour one of two bees will commonly attack. Was fitting some lino and took it into the drive to measure and cut, but the smell was too much for the bees and several attacked me and every time I went near it they would do so again. So definitely influenced by strong smells, therefore any different smelling person approaching their hive they are likely to be also attacked.

In the bush I often encounter wild hives and if I approach too close, I usually end up running quickly away. They are a damn nuisance as there are a couple of areas I would like to visit, but bees won’t let me anywhere near.

This is all as I have observed, yes. There is much to talk about regarding bees.

Bees have a sense of smell that is orders of magnitude better than dogs.

Training them be attracted to ant pheromones is simple (just use a food reward next to a nest). When you consider it costs in the region of $40-60K to train a single dog and then there are ongoing costs such as handler’s salary, vet bills etc, the bees start to make sense.

The real trick comes in being able to follow the bees. They’re too small for a GPS so you have to go back to the old trick of glueing a feather on them. I don’t think following them through the rainforest is much of an option either.

Teleost said:

Bees have a sense of smell that is orders of magnitude better than dogs.

Training them be attracted to ant pheromones is simple (just use a food reward next to a nest). When you consider it costs in the region of $40-60K to train a single dog and then there are ongoing costs such as handler’s salary, vet bills etc, the bees start to make sense.

The real trick comes in being able to follow the bees. They’re too small for a GPS so you have to go back to the old trick of glueing a feather on them. I don’t think following them through the rainforest is much of an option either.

dobs of flourescent paint. The big thing about bees is that whatever they find won’t be too far from each hive.

roughbarked said:

Teleost said:

Bees have a sense of smell that is orders of magnitude better than dogs.

Training them be attracted to ant pheromones is simple (just use a food reward next to a nest). When you consider it costs in the region of $40-60K to train a single dog and then there are ongoing costs such as handler’s salary, vet bills etc, the bees start to make sense.

The real trick comes in being able to follow the bees. They’re too small for a GPS so you have to go back to the old trick of glueing a feather on them. I don’t think following them through the rainforest is much of an option either.

dobs of flourescent paint. The big thing about bees is that whatever they find won’t be too far from each hive.

Why not just train dogs to sniff out bees?

Carmen_Sandiego said:

roughbarked said:

Teleost said:

Bees have a sense of smell that is orders of magnitude better than dogs.

Training them be attracted to ant pheromones is simple (just use a food reward next to a nest). When you consider it costs in the region of $40-60K to train a single dog and then there are ongoing costs such as handler’s salary, vet bills etc, the bees start to make sense.

The real trick comes in being able to follow the bees. They’re too small for a GPS so you have to go back to the old trick of glueing a feather on them. I don’t think following them through the rainforest is much of an option either.

dobs of flourescent paint. The big thing about bees is that whatever they find won’t be too far from each hive.

Why not just train dogs to sniff out bees?

Won’t work. We know where the bees are, we trained them. What we need to do is learn how to get the bees to train us in how to read their interpretive dance.

We did have a dog trained to sniff out Asian Honeybees.

She was bloody useless.

Some dill forgot that bees nest up in trees……….

A sniffer cat would be a better idea then.

Perhaps.

Inky found ants.

Teleost said:

We did have a dog trained to sniff out Asian Honeybees.

She was bloody useless.

Some dill forgot that bees nest up in trees……….

You didn’t teach the dog to absail?