N/A

And you're listening to Shortwave from NPR.

And you're listening to Shortwave from NPR.

Well, kind of for a lot of reasons. So this poop can tell scientists if the whale is eating enough, how stressed they are, if they are pregnant, if they've consumed toxins. The scientists who contracted them, so Colette and Jack to do this job, from the University of Washington and the nonprofit Wild Orca, they've been collecting this whale scat for years.

Well, kind of for a lot of reasons. So this poop can tell scientists if the whale is eating enough, how stressed they are, if they are pregnant, if they've consumed toxins. The scientists who contracted them, so Colette and Jack to do this job, from the University of Washington and the nonprofit Wild Orca, they've been collecting this whale scat for years.

Well, kind of for a lot of reasons. So this poop can tell scientists if the whale is eating enough, how stressed they are, if they are pregnant, if they've consumed toxins. The scientists who contracted them, so Colette and Jack to do this job, from the University of Washington and the nonprofit Wild Orca, they've been collecting this whale scat for years.

Wow. That's amazing. And also sounds far less invasive than having to physically handle a killer whale. How does one go about asking a dog to lead them to whale poop in the ocean?

Wow. That's amazing. And also sounds far less invasive than having to physically handle a killer whale. How does one go about asking a dog to lead them to whale poop in the ocean?

Wow. That's amazing. And also sounds far less invasive than having to physically handle a killer whale. How does one go about asking a dog to lead them to whale poop in the ocean?

Yeah. So before they could even get on the boat, Colette had to train Jack to recognize the smell of whale scat. So first on land.

Yeah. So before they could even get on the boat, Colette had to train Jack to recognize the smell of whale scat. So first on land.

Yeah. So before they could even get on the boat, Colette had to train Jack to recognize the smell of whale scat. So first on land.

trees and on top of rocks and all these places where obviously you're never going to find it in the wild but it doesn't make a difference to him he's just like okay i know this game and he loves that game so they do this on land then they moved their training to a boat jack stands at the front of the boat sniffing the air and colette stands behind him so jack never actually gets in the water right right he's been trained to sniff out this whale scat from the boat

trees and on top of rocks and all these places where obviously you're never going to find it in the wild but it doesn't make a difference to him he's just like okay i know this game and he loves that game so they do this on land then they moved their training to a boat jack stands at the front of the boat sniffing the air and colette stands behind him so jack never actually gets in the water right right he's been trained to sniff out this whale scat from the boat

trees and on top of rocks and all these places where obviously you're never going to find it in the wild but it doesn't make a difference to him he's just like okay i know this game and he loves that game so they do this on land then they moved their training to a boat jack stands at the front of the boat sniffing the air and colette stands behind him so jack never actually gets in the water right right he's been trained to sniff out this whale scat from the boat

Commitment to the ocean sometimes looks like this. How does Colette know, though, that Jack has picked up on a scent?

Commitment to the ocean sometimes looks like this. How does Colette know, though, that Jack has picked up on a scent?

Commitment to the ocean sometimes looks like this. How does Colette know, though, that Jack has picked up on a scent?

Yeah, so he usually wags his tail and leads Colette right to the thing on land. But in a boat, he can't run to the poop. So Colette had to learn to notice these super subtle changes in Jack's demeanor.

Yeah, so he usually wags his tail and leads Colette right to the thing on land. But in a boat, he can't run to the poop. So Colette had to learn to notice these super subtle changes in Jack's demeanor.

Yeah, so he usually wags his tail and leads Colette right to the thing on land. But in a boat, he can't run to the poop. So Colette had to learn to notice these super subtle changes in Jack's demeanor.