Detecting rare species is important for both threatened species management and invasive species eradication programs. Conservation scent dogs provide an olfactory survey tool which can have advantages over traditional visual and auditory survey techniques for some cryptic species. From the literature, we identified five measures important for evaluating the use of scent dogs to address conservation objectives: precision, sensitivity, effort, cost and comparison with other techniques. We explore the scale at which performance is evaluated and present examples where field testing under real working conditions is achievable. We also identify significant cost variations between studies, which we attribute to the differences in how the dog and handler are sourced for the study. We provide a framework to address inconsistencies in reporting and recommend guidelines to assist future studies to develop consistent reporting standards. We examine 61 recent studies reporting conservation dog performance, highlighting inconsistencies in the reporting of scent dog performance and find that only four studies reported all five measures. We present consistent reporting guidelines for the key factors that influence evaluation; specifically performance measures and cost in addition to survey objectives, dog training, type of detection task and human influences. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.

中文翻译：

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评估保护犬以寻找稀有物种

检测稀有物种对于​​受威胁物种管理和入侵物种根除计划都很重要。保护气味狗提供了一种嗅觉调查工具，对于某些神秘物种，它比传统的视觉和听觉调查技术更具优势。从文献中，我们确定了五项对于评估使用气味犬来解决保护目标的重要措施：精确度、敏感性、努力、成本以及与其他技术的比较。我们探索了评估性能的规模，并展示了可以在实际工作条件下进行现场测试的示例。我们还确定了研究之间的显着成本差异，我们将其归因于研究中狗和训犬师的采购方式不同。我们提供了一个框架来解决报告中的不一致问题，并推荐指导方针以帮助未来的研究制定一致的报告标准。我们检查了最近 61 项报告保护犬表现的研究，突出了气味犬表现报告的不一致，发现只有四项研究报告了所有五项措施。我们为影响评估的关键因素提供一致的报告指南；除了调查目标、狗训练、检测任务类型和人为影响之外，特别是性能测量和成本。本文受版权保护。版权所有。强调气味狗表现报告中的不一致，并发现只有四项研究报告了所有五项措施。我们为影响评估的关键因素提供一致的报告指南；除了调查目标、狗训练、检测任务类型和人为影响之外，特别是性能测量和成本。本文受版权保护。版权所有。强调气味狗表现报告中的不一致，并发现只有四项研究报告了所有五项措施。我们为影响评估的关键因素提供一致的报告指南；除了调查目标、狗训练、检测任务类型和人为影响之外，特别是性能测量和成本。本文受版权保护。版权所有。