Submitted via IRC for Fnord666
A new study in the journal Scientific Reports gets to the bottom of it: Why do dogs that are trained to locate poop sometimes find the wrong kind of poop?
[...] In her own work, DeMatteo has successfully used scat-detection dogs to identify the routes traveled by endangered pumas and other reclusive carnivores along a biologically important corridor in Argentina.
Detection dogs are great at determining the presence of specific animals because they can find droppings hidden in grass, droppings that have been rained on and disintegrated into the mud -- or even droppings that have been eaten and then recycled.
Source: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2018/09/180914100433.htm
(Score: 2) by stretch611 on Saturday September 22 2018, @04:03PM (1 child)
Unfortunately, usually it is dogs that do this type of "recycling,"
Now with 5 covid vaccine shots/boosters altering my DNA :P
(Score: 2) by Reziac on Sunday September 23 2018, @04:05AM
Actually, most animals do to some degree. We only really notice when it's dogs, because we mistakenly expect pets to have the same social habits as humans.
And there is no Alkibiades to come back and save us from ourselves.