Dogs looking for nests help effort to boost pollinator habitats and population

Dog-walking is popular at scenic Grant Woods Forest Preserve in Ingleside but on a recent morning it was all work for two specially-trained Labradors from the Conservation Dogs Collective.

A bumblebee on a flower in the a Lake County forest preserve.
Courtesy of Lake County Forest Preserves

Canines Ernie and Betty White were brought in specifically for their expertise in helping detect valuable information for the Lake County Forest Preserve District.

“Today, it’s all about the bumblebees,” explained Kathryn McCabe, wildlife ecologist.

More precisely, finding bumblebee nests generally located underground. Finding them helps researchers studying habitat preference and colony behavior. There are 12 species in Lake County, including the federally endangered rusty patched bumblebee.

“Bumblebees are very charismatic — they’re like a fluffy teddy bear,” she said. “Bumblebees are a nice gateway into the world of pollinators.”

McCabe and others have been gathering data on pollinators to help guide land restoration efforts and hopefully increase the number of pollinators.

Food crops we rely on grow because of them, experts say, but depending on the species, populations have declined 60% or more in recent years due to climate change, habitat loss, pesticides, diseases and other factors.

Which is where Ernie and Betty White come in. According to Conservation Dogs Collective, dogs are super sniffers and the part of their brains devoted to analyzing smells is about 40 times greater than humans and there is no human-made instrument that can replicate their scenting power and efficiency.

Finding nest sites is part of general bumble bee monitoring programs in Lake County but this is the first year dogs have been used to assist.

“The expectation is to get more information on how we can best focus these searches and find more nests,” McCabe said.

“You need pollinators for plant reproduction. Different plants support different insects and you move up the food chain from there,” she added.

On this particular morning, McCabe, Laura Holder, executive director of the Wisconsin-based organization, and others met on a public trail off Fairfield Road in the southern section of Grant Woods Forest Preserve, a 1,226-acre expanse rich in rare native plants. This was the fifth and final session of the year with Conservation Dogs Collective and the first at Grant Woods.

The search is to be conducted well off the dedicated trail into teeming waist-tall fields of flowers and other plants and into the woods. But Betty White, a 5-year-old bundle of energy, can’t contain herself and already is in the field leaping like a swimmer doing the butterfly stroke appearing and disappearing from view.

“Betty definitely is a bounder,” says Holder, preparing to get underway. The dogs go out one at a time and Ernie will be put into service later.

Equipped with a GPS collar, Betty is on a mission and in near-constant motion except when she’s stopped to have burrs or sticky seeds plucked from her coat or be given water. She “alerts” on rodent holes, sometimes used by bumblebees for nests but none will be found today.

In fact, of the five sessions with the dogs this year, only one bumblebee nest was located and that was in a different forest preserve. Two others, one active and one inactive, were found while other work was being done. Nests are only used for a single year so finding were they have been also is important, researchers say.

McCabe and others are considering the big picture.

“Any data we get will be extremely valuable over time,” McCabe said. “I think we learned a lot from this effort and will reflect on the experience and how we can improve it moving forward.”

Conservation Dogs Collective also works with the Forest Preserve District of DuPage County and other organizations.

Seven nests were found in DuPage last year, said Jennifer Rydzewski, a district ecologist.

Dogs found one confirmed nest and several potential sites this year. Visiting the same areas year after year can provide insight about what habitats bumblebees prefer, she said.

But you don’t have to be a professional to help the cause.

“One of the best things people can do is plant native plants anywhere you can,” Rydzewski said.