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cover of episode Will Bark For Science

Will Bark For Science

2025/3/5
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Short Wave

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Burleigh McCoy
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Ken Ramirez
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Collette Yee: 我和我的犬类伙伴Jack参与了许多自然保护项目,例如寻找濒危蜜蜂的巢穴。Jack接受过专业的训练,能够胜任各种复杂的任务,它在寻找目标气味方面有着非凡的天赋。在与Jack合作的过程中,我深刻体会到人与动物之间建立信任的重要性,这种信任是项目成功的关键。 在寻找鲸鱼粪便的过程中,我们面临着诸多挑战,例如时间紧迫、环境复杂以及需要与船长有效沟通等。但通过不断的训练和磨合,我们最终取得了成功,这充分证明了警犬在自然保护中的巨大潜力。 Burleigh McCoy: 警犬在自然保护领域发挥着越来越重要的作用,其应用范围广泛,涵盖了寻找各种动物的排泄物、活体动物的气味、入侵物种、违禁品以及病株等。警犬能够提供人类难以获取的关键信息,弥补了传统方法的不足。 以寻找鲸鱼粪便为例,鲸鱼粪便中蕴含着丰富的科学信息,可以帮助科学家了解鲸鱼的健康状况、饮食习惯以及环境污染情况等。然而,由于鲸鱼粪便在水中很快分解或沉没,寻找鲸鱼粪便需要在时间限制内进行,并需要考虑水流和风向等因素。 此外,我还采访了相关的专家,他们从科学的角度解释了警犬优异的嗅觉能力,以及如何通过训练提高警犬的探测效率。 Ken Ramirez: 训练警犬进行气味探测的关键在于教会它们识别目标气味、嗅探时机以及发现目标气味后的行为。训练过程中,需要避免人为气味对犬类训练材料的影响,以确保犬类能够独立识别目标气味。 人和犬之间建立在信任基础上的独特关系是项目成功的关键因素。警犬在自然保护工作中的成功应用,离不开训练员的专业知识和耐心细致的训练。 Lauren DeGrief: 与人类相比,犬类等哺乳动物的嗅觉系统在空气吸入路径和鼻腔结构上存在差异,这使得它们具有更强的嗅觉能力。犬类的鼻腔结构,包括鼻侧的细小裂缝和鼻腔后部的海绵状区域,有助于它们收集和浓缩气味分子。 犬类拥有比人类更多的气味受体,能够区分更多种类的气味分子,并对气味进行编码,从而更好地识别目标气味。在某些情况下,例如训练犬类探测石油泄漏残留物,需要了解目标气味的化学成分差异,以便更好地进行训练。

Deep Dive

Chapters
Collette Yee and her dog, Jack, work for Rogue Detection Teams, training rescue dogs for various conservation tasks. Jack's skills have been used to locate bumblebee nests, endangered bees, scat from various animals, invasive species, contraband, and diseased plants.
  • Dogs are trained to detect various scents for conservation purposes.
  • The field of conservation dog detection has significantly expanded in recent years.
  • Dogs can locate items in rugged, remote terrain, which would be difficult or impossible for humans.

Shownotes Transcript

On their second job ever, Collette Yee and her partner were assigned a difficult job: locate transient whale poop in the ocean before it sinks. Luckily, Collette was partnered with Jack, a blue healer mix trained to sniff out cryptic odors from things that conservation biologists have trouble collecting on their own. Producer Berly McCoy) reports on Jack and the growing field of dog detection conservation that helps science by sniffing out everything from invasive crabs to diseased plants to endangered species. *Interested in more biotech stories? Let us know by dropping a line to [email protected]).Listen to every episode of Short Wave sponsor-free and support our work at NPR by signing up for Short Wave+ at plus.npr.org/shortwave).*Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices)NPR Privacy Policy)