22 OregonStater.org TOP AND RIGHT: KAYLA FRATT; BOTTOM: TONI PROESCHOLDT Barley is a conservation detection dog, and while his life’s pursuit is earning his favorite toy, he’s also advancing science by locating wolf scat samples for Fratt’s doctoral research on Southeastern Alaska’s wolves. Fratt’s research is in collaboration with the Alaska Department of Fish and Game. Conservation detection dogs have risen in importance over the past few decades, after it became possible to use genetic fingerprinting to identify individual animals from scat samples. More recently, techniques like metabarcoding have also let scientists analyze animal droppings to gain detailed insights into diet, parasites and other ecological factors. Fratt’s advisor, Associate Professor Taal Levi, has been on the forefront of using this tool to solve fishery, wildlife ecology and conservation mysteries around the world. “Our lab does among the most fecal DNA metabarcoding in the world because, in addition to our landscape-scale projects, we process samples for researchers and multiple state, federal and tribal agencies,” Levi says. “One of the biggest reasons I was excited to join Taal’s lab is because it’s on the cutting edge of using fecal DNA to learn about animal species,” says Fratt, who started at Oregon State University in 2023. “In the lab I am learning from the best of the best about analysis of fecal DNA — that’s why I’m getting a Ph.D.” Fratt’s dissertation will also focus on the science of working with detection dogs, and she hopes it will improve how they’re trained and used in the field . ڿ PREVIOUS PAGE: Fratt, field technician Toni Proescholdt and Barley on a survey in Alaska. ↑ TOP: Alaska team members pick their way through the brush. BOTTOM: Fratt and Barley hot on a trail. RIGHT: Barley earns his beloved ball. The Levi Lab’s ongoing research on Alaskan wolves has documented the world’s first case of wolves living largely off of sea otters instead of their usual diet of deer. Fratt is expanding the research’s scope to study a group of Southeastern Alaskan islands that the Alexander Archipelago wolf subspecies swims between. She boats from island to island with Barley and her other dog, Niffler (any Harry Potter fans?), to collect wolf scat — they scored 779 samples in their first field season. Fratt tubes the scats, freezes them, and then takes them back to Corvallis to the lab to be thawed before she and technicians extract the DNA. So far, she sees signs of sea otter in the wolf scat she collects, which supports previous diet observations. continued
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy MTcxMjMwNg==