09:36 AM PDT on Monday, July 17, 2006

Associated Press

WREN, Ore. -- Drugs, bombs and even criminals are found with the help of man's best friend. Now conservationists are using dogs to find endangered animals and threatened plants.

A turtle is released by hand into the Columbia River. (KGW Photo/Oregon Zoo)

In Nevada, dogs have helped find the federally-endangered desert tortoise. And in the Atlantic Ocean a dog perched in the bow of a boat has helped find the feces of the endangered and elusive North Atlantic right whale. A researcher hopes locating the whales will explain why there are only 350 left in the world.

Closer to home, near the city of Wren in the Willamette Valley, a special Belgian sheepdog named Chilko is helping researchers find the state's rare Western pond turtle on private land along the Mary's River.

Conservation biologist Dave Vesely trained Chilko with positive reinforcement, teaching the dog to first identify a turtle and then detect water from a turtle's aquarium out in a field. Little by little Chilko has become an expert at tracking turtles.

Biologist Josh Cerra said Vesely is on to something.

"These dogs have a high ability to find the needle in the haystack," he said. "When we are working with limited funds, this is a potential solution. It's a new era in survey work."

After turtle nesting season Chilko and another of Vesely's dogs will be trained to find the rare prairie plant, Kincaid's lupine, the food of the endangered Fender's blue butterfly. The dogs will help the Nature Conservancy's search for plant in the hills around Coburg, Ore.

Dogs like Chilko are also being used for simple wildlife surveys. Packleader Dog Training, in Gig Harbor, Wash., trains high-energy dogs rescued from the humane society to find the scat of everything from bats and bears to cougars and lynx.

Owner Barbara Davenport said her company rescues dogs that wouldn't normally find homes. The are usually trained as narcotics dogs for the state department of corrections.

"They are unadoptable to the general public -- they are such high drive, they are annoying to live with," she said.

But it turns out they are perfect as search dogs.

Davenport leases her dogs to researchers for at least $1,500 a month. The researcher also is trained by Davenport to handle the dog and read the canine's signals -- at about $1,500 per week for at least two weeks.