Conservation dogs put their noses to the ground to help find downed seabirds

Can specially trained dogs improve the rate at which downed seabirds are found?

After a recent trial run at Turtle Bay Resort on Oahu’s North Shore, the results look promising.

Three dog-handler teams, including canines named Eddie, Zephyr and Guinness, showed they could more effectively find downed seabirds that were hidden than their human counterparts.

The dog teams found 90% of hidden seabird carcasses, compared with experienced volunteers who found about 57%, according to Sheldon Plentovich, Pacific Islands Coastal Program coordinator for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. While humans knowing what to look for are able to locate downed seabirds out in the open, many under cover may be missed. That’s where dogs come in.

To test this, Plentovich hid carcasses of mostly wedge-tailed shearwaters at random locations, within naupaka foliage or beneath parked cars. Searches were conducted during the same time periods over three days, and initial results show dog teams can consistently detect seabird carcasses better than humans, she said.

Seabird fallout season takes place from mid-September to December, when young seabirds head from their burrows out to sea for the first time, guided by moonlight. Many become disoriented by artificial lights and end up circling around them, confused, until they fall from exhaustion or collide with structures. Once down, they become highly vulnerable to predators such as mongooses or feral cats, starvation or being struck by a vehicle.

Plentovich said with the high density of mongooses on Oahu, many downed seabirds will survive only an hour or two.

Several hundred seabirds fall on Oahu every year, prompting the Hawaii Wildlife Center to send a team to the island every year to work on rescue efforts. Most are fledglings no larger than the palm of one’s hand, but if rescued, will generally survive and fly again.

Plentovich is hopeful that with the help of the dogs, biologists might potentially save more seabirds.

“My guess is we’re not seeing a large percentage of birds that are falling out because they’re difficult to see,” she said.

Kyoko Johnson, founder of the nonprofit Conservation Dogs of Hawaii, believes in the vast potential of canines for the work, whether it’s sniffing out invasive species such as devil weed, which they have done, or helping to locate endangered species to better protect them.

Recently, the dogs did some seabird burrow detection work — searching for the underground nests of endangered Hawaiian petrels and band-rumped storm petrels — on Hawaii island.

This was to help the state Department of Forestry and Wildlife with population counts and monitoring, as well as to help determine where to implement predator control efforts such as fencing.

Years before starting her nonprofit in 2016, Johnson was hired to work with North Shore wind farms monitoring for downed seabirds and the Hawaiian hoary bat, which put her on the path toward conservation work with dogs.

In another project, detection dogs were enlisted to sniff out duck carcasses infected by avian botulism at Hanalei National Wildlife Refuge as part of a pilot project. Early detection is valuable for the removal of the carcasses to help contain the spread of the waterbird toxin.

This time, however, efforts are focused on saving live seabirds.

“I’m super excited about the potential,” said Johnson. “Not only are we looking for dead birds, but hopefully for live birds so we can get them to rehab before they die.”

The three dogs involved in the trial run at Turtle Bay Resort included Eddie, a yellow Labrador retriever, Guinness, a shepherd mix, and Johnson’s dog Zephyr, a black Labrador retriever puppy.

Eddie, who belongs to Hollywood animal trainer Sue Chipperton, starred as Steve McGarrett’s dog and sidekick in the former CBS show “Hawaii Five-0.” When he is not doing film work, Eddie loves keeping busy with scent detection work and is actually quite good at it.

The conservation dogs are specially trained not to go after birds, although they may be dogs with high drives. Johnson said the dogs were taught to give a “passive” alert so as not to be disruptive to sensitive wildlife.

This means when they have found a downed seabird or the target, they will sit or lie down, or do a stand-stay at the site, oftentimes combined with a “look back” at the dog handler rather than active barking or pawing.

“You might see the dog suddenly changing direction, casting its head and nose up into the air, zigzagging to bracket the edges of a scent cone (where the scent is flowing), sniffing with closed mouth,” she said. “So the Sit or Down alert is nice to have, but the dog handler can usually tell there’s a target there before the dog pinpoints it.”

As part of the nonprofit’s state and federal permit, the conservation dogs will wear muzzles and be kept on leash for downed-seabird surveys.

Next, Johnson is hoping to conduct a more extensive trial with dog teams at a Kauai resort over seven days to compare results.

Since starting her nonprofit, Johnson continues to discover just how many applications there can be for canines and conservation work in Hawaii.

Many dogs are putting their noses to work for the military or federal agencies, detecting explosives and drugs, along with the brigade of beagles monitoring agricultural contraband at the Honolulu airport.

More than a decade of research has found dogs also can be used for medical detection of diseases, with some now exploring their ability to detect COVID-19.

Conservation work in Hawaii is a growing field, and Johnson is interested in exploring all of the potential.

Plentovich first worked with conservation dogs in December 2020 for a project surveying yellow crazy ants at Johnson Atoll National Wildlife Refuge, a seabird nesting colony.

After working for a decade to eradicate the invasive ants at the atoll, which took a toll on red-tailed tropic birds, USFWS had not detected ants there since December 2017. To be sure, USFWS enlisted the detection dogs — Guinness and Solo — to do a sweep as an extra layer of assurance, she said.

The dogs searched within approximately 140 acres of the atoll and did not find any yellow crazy ants.

Johnson said dogs undergo months of training, at minimum, and not all are suited for conservation detection work.

She hopes dogs can play a role not only in conservation, but serve as ambassadors for conservation issues.

FOUND A DOWNED SEABIRD?

The Hawaii Wildlife Center recently opened a new satellite office at Honolulu Zoo to help downed seabirds during fallout season. If you find one, here’s where you can take it:

>> Feather and Fur Animal Hospital, 25 Kaneohe Bay Drive (Aikahi Park Shopping Center) in Kailua, available 24 hours

>> Hawaiian Humane Society, 2700 Waialae Ave. in Honolulu, available from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. daily

>> James Campbell National Wildlife Refuge, 56-795 Kamehameha Highway in Kahuku, available from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday

>> Waianae Small Boat Harbor, 85-491 Farrington Highway, 7:45 a.m.-4 p.m. Monday through Friday

For help with bird identification, contact the Hawaii Wildlife Center at birdhelp@hawaiiwildlifecenter.org or 808-884-5000.