Bat Detection Dog for Wind Turbines

Living Tree’s team member Hawke, Aotearoa’s first DoC – Conservation Dog Program certified bat detection dog, uses scent detection to support bat conservation. Certified to prove the dog’s accuracy and consistency.

Hawke is used to support pekapeka work across a range of environments and project types, including:

• Wind turbines
  Wind turbines present a known risk to bats, including fatalities caused by barotrauma (pressure changes). Bat detection dogs have been shown to be up to 95% more effective than human searchers, who typically locate as little as ~5% of bat fatalities during ground searches. Hawke is used to improve detection confidence, which informs risk management and mitigation and is a faster, more cost effective and accurate alternative than human ecologists.

• Post-tree removal inspections
  Targeted searches following vegetation or tree removal to confirm whether bats were present or affected can inform the effectiveness of DoC protocols and are more precise than visual human inspection.

• Building inspections prior to demolition
  We facilitate detection dog searches to identify presence to minimise bat casualties in building demolition projects.

• Advocacy and engagement to promote bat conservation in Aotearoa through workshops with iwi, communities, conservation groups, schools and government agencies.

Hawke is trained to operate safely in sensitive environments and has completed aversion training to minimise risk to protected species and stock, including:

• Kiwi aversion

• Stock aversion

• Avian aversion

• DoC obedience protocols for conservation dogs 

Hawke is also DoC certified for detection work on other invasive target species, and is supporting island eradication programmes to protect sensitive environments.