Spring 2025 21 RESEARCH PHOTO BY KAYLA FRATT SMELLS LIKE SCIENCE How a student trained her dogs to sniff out critical ecology data. By Siobhan Murray Barley the border collie mix quivers, barely brea- thing. His handler, Oregon State doctoral student Kayla Fratt, whispers the magic word — “search” — and he speeds into the forest with his nose to the ground, moving methodically. When he catches a whiff of the scent he seeks, his nose hooks, as if magnetized to something upwind. His tail begins circling.When he gets close to the scent, his nose pinpoints the source while the rest of his body sidesteps like a crab. Barley drops to his belly, bracketing his discovery — wolf scat — between his paws. His eyes widen as Fratt rewards him with his beloved ball. continued
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