A recent video suggests not!
I was idly browsing the BBC News online a couple of days ago and saw this small but wonderful piece.
The dogs helping endangered Tasmanian devils find a mate
A world-first trial in Australia is using detection dogs to help zookeepers identify when Tasmanian devils may be ready to breed.
If the programme is successful, it’s hoped the method could help other endangered species too.
Video by Isabelle Rodd
There is a video available but it is nearly an hour long.
Enjoy!
Learning from Dogs 
Great video. Love seeing stories like this.
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I knew you would, Susan!
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Oh that’s great to know. Our devils ( now found only in Tasmania but historically once on mainland Australia) have been under serious threat of extinction following the emergence a decade back of Devil facial tumour disease (DFTD), which is an aggressive non-viral clonally transmissible cancer. It’s a horrible disease and the poor animals suffer greatly. Fortunately a big effort has been underway to develop disease free insurance populations – one on an island off Tasmania and some on the mainland. I imagine the dogs are working with those captive populations to help increase their numbers.
Wouldn’t it be great if this method could be used to help other endangered and difficult to breed populations – like pandas?
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Oh, without question, Margaret. There was the implication in the article that this would be the focus for our dogs in this degree.
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