Study Overview:

The Morro Bay kangaroo rat Dipodomys heermanni morroensis is a nocturnal, burrowing rodent endemic to the vicinity of Morro Bay in San Luis Obispo County, California. It was listed as endangered pursuant to the U.S. Endangered Species Act in 1973. Despite many searches over three decades, the Morro Bay kangaroo rat had not been captured or sighted in the wild since 1986. While the Morro Bay kangaroo rat may be extinct, it was speculated that it might be persisting at extremely low densities in isolated colonies. Surveys with one wildlife scent-detection dog and baited camera traps were performed in August of 2016. 

The dog, Vector, was trained to recognize the scent of Lompoc kangaroo rats by using their fecal pellets. Training comprised discriminating the scent of Lompoc kangaroo rats from the scents of co-occurring small mammal species, including the California pocket mouse Chaetodipus californicus, California mouse Peromyscus californicus, and deer mouse P. maniculatus. Verification trials were performed to test the dog’s ability to detect and alert not only to the scent of fecal pellets of Lompoc kangaroo rats, but also to the scent of live Lompoc kangaroo rats in the field using live trap lines.

Baited camera stations were positioned at two canine alert sites and two sites of special interest (where the dog checked several burrows repeatedly but did not alert) across the surveyed public lands, known to previously contain Morro Bay kangaroo rats, and that had potential signs in 2011 and 2013. The resulting surveys produced no evidence (photographic images) of this taxon, despite using a trained wildlife scent-detection dog and baited camera traps at alert sites. Unfortunately, data combined with all other existing data do not allow a conclusion whether the Morro Bay kangaroo rat is extinct or extant.