Tucker is a 13 year old black lab who helped researchers at University of Washington learn more about the correlation between orca whales and their environment by smelling their droppings. One thing they learned about with Tucker’s help was isolating a hormone in the dung to study whale reproduction habits. Tucker will be replaced by a 5 year old Australian cattle dog so that this important research can continue to help Orcas survive changing conditions.
Key Takeaways:
- Tucker is a 13 year old Labrador retriever who is retiring from helping researchers understand animals by finding orca droppings
- He helped locate droppings which are tested to learn more about orca reproductive patterns
- Jack is their replacement dog, and is trained to locate wolverines and long-eared bats
“A dutiful dog that’s spent the last several years snout-deep in orca poop is calling it quits.”
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