How detection dogs are helping protect one of Australia's most imperiled lizards
Many of the Australian animals most at risk of extinction are extremely tough to track down. That's because they live in small pockets of disappearing nature, such as rare grasslands or ancient forests, in worryingly low numbers.
Australia's most endangered reptile, the Victorian grassland earless dragon, eludes detection due to its tiny size and secretive behavior. These lizards hide in wolf spider burrows and have been elusive since their rediscovery in 2023. Wildlife detection dogs, trained to locate animals through their scent, were employed to find dragon poop, which can indicate their presence.
However, the dogs found only one scat sample after over 100 surveys. Poop disappears rapidly, often scavenged by insects within 24 hours, and low dragon density further limits detection. Consequently, the focus has shifted to training detection dogs to directly locate the dragons themselves in their natural habitats.
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