By Alliance Intern Kaitlyn Downer from Oregon State University ‘25
We all know dogs are loyal, dependable and incredibly smart. And it’s clear their senses make them invaluable – from guide dogs and emotional support to PTSD treatment and search & rescue. But did you know that they’re just as valuable for protecting our environment?
Dogs are truly our best friend from a sustainability perspective. They have the capacity to do things humans cannot and help solve urgent challenges with wildlife preservation and ecosystem protection.
When I was searching for news on conservation efforts, I came across a fascinating National Wildlife Federation (NWF) article about “nature’s best friends,” aka conservation dogs. Being a huge dog lover, I immediately clicked on it. I was pleasantly surprised when I read that many dogs are used for conservation and protection of wild birds in the state of Hawai’i, where I grew up.
A common conservation dog application is finding burrows of endangered birds to qualify for funding protection efforts, such as predator-proof fencing, according to the NWF. For example, the endangered Hawaiian petrel nests in lava tunnels burrows from 3 to 30 feet deep. It’s no wonder that the conservation workers need assistants with incredible hearing and smell to locate them.
Conservation Dogs of Hawai’i helps with seabird fallout around the islands. Seabird fledglings naturally follow the moonlight to fly out to sea. However, due to artificial lighting many of them are confused and don’t successfully complete their journeys, often ending up on land injured or lost. Conservation dogs like Xena (below) help save these wild birds from vulnerable situations.
Though many wildlife refuges appreciate the help of volunteer surveyors, dogs are much better at this job than humans due to their keen detection abilities, according to Lauralea Oliver from K9inSCENTive.
Protecting Wolves and Plants While Detecting Toxins
The super-sensory help of conservation dogs isn’t limited to the tropical islands. They also assist with efforts that hit much closer to their roots – tracking packs of gray wolves in the Pacific Northwest.
When I first learned that, I thought it was quite ironic. As we know, humans are the root of overall wildlife and environmental deterioration. We essentially created dogs by domesticating wolves, and now we’re using our creation to help conserve the populations of the animals we interfered with in the first place. In a way, though, it is heartwarming to think about how dogs are helping to protect their own roots.
But their impactful work doesn’t stop there. Conservation dogs also help to locate invasive plants, predators, oil leaks and endemic species that are at risk.
These actions help to protect the environment, and surprisingly they also save the US millions of dollars per year from damaging invasive species, according to the NWF.
How Can They Accomplish So Much? Dogs Have Superpowers Way Beyond Us
While we humans are incredibly innovative and hold ourselves in high regard as the top of the species pyramid, we seem to have many limitations and even blind spots. We believe that what we see and smell is the actual reality, when in fact, the world is much broader than our senses allow us to know. Perhaps we might just learn something from other species, like dogs?
Did you know that dogs have the ability to sniff odors up to 12 miles away and hear a wider range of frequencies? This makes them essential partners for many tasks. Even technology that humans create isn’t as accurate or strong as what our four-legged best friends can offer.
Dogs can detect what is equal to a gallon of contaminant in a trillion gallons of water, according to Amritha Mallikarjun, a postdoctoral researcher at the Penn Vet Working Dog Center of the University of Pennsylvania. Mechanical methods made by humans can only detect a fraction of that.
We Need to Think Anew About Our Relationship with Dogs and Nature
Wolves are highly evolved species that have embodied an extraordinary relationship with nature. It would then only make sense that their closest relative, dogs, would have innate abilities within them that we need to learn from.
Now more than ever, it’s important that we humans recognize our interdependence with nature. Many of us believe we’re the most evolved species on the planet and act accordingly, dominating and subjugating all other species. We are losing the numerous gifts other species provide.
If we step back and truly become aligned with all our relations as Native Americans practice, we might discover new realms of possibility for partnership. Dogs are inviting us to go on that journey.
Life is far more than what we see, touch and think. There’s a much greater life force that we have become increasingly divorced from thanks to all of our media and busyness. If we could only take a break from that busyness and reconnect, we might find solutions to some of the most daunting challenges we face and actually learn to live in harmony with all of life.
And just maybe, the everflowing love and acceptance dogs offer can show us how we can all live together.