Using a dog trained to track the scent of orca scat, researchers at the University of Washington are finding that hormone levels in scat samples indicate the animals aren't getting enough to eat.
By Lynda V. Mapes, Seattle Times staff reporter
Researchers trying to learn whether orcas are starving have turned — with the help of a dog — to a new source of information: orca scat.
Tucker, a black Lab trained in tracking animal scat, has been deployed two of the past three summers to track down orca scat between the San Juan Islands and Vancouver Island in Haro Strait, sniffing his quarry from the bow of a research boat for a University of Washington research team.
When Tucker finds what researchers are looking for, he gets to play with his ball. So he is a highly motivated tracker — and in the summers of 2006 and 2008, he helped track down some of 130 samples of scat from orca whales in Puget Sound's J, K and L pods.
Sam Wasser, director of the UW's Center for Conservation Biology, led the research team, which analyzed hormone levels in the scat. What they found surprised them. The orca mortality rate was the highest when thyroid hormone levels were lowest, indicating the animals may be nutritionally deprived.
The southern resident population of orcas that frequents Puget Sound is endangered. The seven orcas missing and presumed dead this year bring the population to just 83 animals, the fewest since 2003, and down from a recent high of 97 in 1996. The number of deaths has alarmed researchers, who haven't seen as steep a drop in nearly a decade.
With dog's help, clues to orcas' decline found in whale scat
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