Operative monitoring of the distribution of the Russian desman (Desmana moschata) using a trained dog

Abstract

The desman is a semi-aquatic animal that spends most of its time in water, and the water bodies it inhabits are mostly small, with marshy banks overgrown with dense grass and woody and shrubby vegetation. All of this makes research and observation of the species difficult and often impossible. In 2010, a new method of searching for traces of the desman and monitoring its abundance was developed. The application of this method would not require long training of specialists and would almost minimise the negative impact on the study of natural conditions and terrain features. It is known that the desman actively uses the secretion of the caudal gland in chemical communication. This is a liquid that is a complex compound of monoesters, carbonyl compounds and alcohols, and is characterised by a clear differentiation of sex and age of the animal. The hydrophobicity of the liquid ensures its long-term preservation, even in aquatic environment, of its fragrant musky smell, which is easily distinguished by the olfactory receptors of many animals. Based on this, we decided to use a sniffer dog in our project. The sniffer dog was trained by a cynologist using an upgraded methodology with the use of samples from the tail gland of the desman as a training marker. This new method was tested in August 2011 on four lakes within the Khopersky Nature Reserve in the presence of a reserve employee. To test the effectiveness of the new method, the data obtained were compared with the results of previous studies conducted in these water bodies by the reserve’s staff using classical methods in the current and previous years. It is established that the application of the proposed survey method, based on the use of a dog trained to search for a desman by its musky smell, significantly increases the efficiency of research. The total number of registered traces of Desmana moschata increased by 80.0% due to the use of a sniffer dog, compared to the overall results of the standard method during one year in winter and summer, and by 38.5% when using the standard method for several years. The time taken to survey water bodies using the new method was only slightly longer than the time taken using standard methods.

Keywords

• russian desman
• monitoring
• distribution
• search for species