Leo: Rescue Dog Turned Koala Detection Dog for Holy Scat

Leo once roamed suburban streets without a collar or any certain prospect. Now, as part of a specialist conservation team, he searches central Queensland forests and farmland for evidence of koalas. His journey demonstrates how an unwanted pet can become a vital ally for threatened wildlife.

From shelter dog to conservation recruit

A ranger discovered Leo wandering by himself when he was six months old. He was brought to a local shelter, one more lively black-and-white young dog in a nation already full of working-breed crosses needing a home.

Around then, veterinary nurse and conservation advocate Jacqui Summers was seeking another detection dog. She required a companion with endurance, curiosity and an almost obsessive enthusiasm for play - the very qualities that can leave dogs bored and unwanted in suburban gardens.

When Jacqui first encountered Leo, his concentration and determination were immediately clear. He fixed on toys, blocked out distractions and recovered swiftly from unfamiliar or odd experiences. Although these characteristics could make him difficult as a household pet, they were perfectly suited to canine work involving long searches through heat, dust and tall grass.

Leo moved from concrete kennel runs to wide bushland, becoming a working dog with a purpose: help researchers find koalas.

After being adopted from the shelter, Leo entered Jacqui’s Holy Scat detection dog team, joining two seasoned dogs, Artemis and Skye. Together, the three dogs make up Queensland’s only dedicated conservation dog unit concentrating on koala work.

The team behind “holy scat”

Holy Scat is founded on one straightforward principle: wildlife cannot be protected until its location is known. In landscapes that have been extensively altered, this is far more difficult than it may appear. Koalas can occupy isolated patches of trees, travel after dark and remain high in the canopy.

Rather than looking for the animals, Jacqui’s dogs are taught to locate their remains: droppings, known as scat. For koalas, these small pellet-shaped droppings can be nearly impossible to spot on the woodland floor.

By working from scent, the dogs can find scat in locations people would likely pass without noticing. Researchers can therefore map koala presence over wide areas and monitor change over time.

Working dogs like Leo turn a tedious needle-in-a-haystack search into a focused mission guided by their nose.

Queensland’s first dedicated koala detection unit

Although detection dogs already operate in a number of Australian states, their uptake in Queensland has been slower. This is now beginning to change. Holy Scat works with CQUniversity and the national koala monitoring program to survey central Queensland, where koalas face pressure from land clearing, heatwaves and disease.

For researchers, a trained dog team in the field can transform what can be achieved during brief survey visits. Instead of checking only a limited number of trees, they can search whole paddocks, creek lines and broken bushland corridors.

• Dogs locate koala scat concealed by leaf litter and grass.
• Scientists verify the scat and log GPS locations.
• The data is added to national databases monitoring koala populations.
• Findings inform habitat protection, corridors and later surveys.

How a nose beats satellite images

Modern koala research brings together advanced monitoring technology and traditional field surveys. Drones, acoustic recorders and satellite imagery can identify suitable habitat and potential koala hotspots. However, every one of these approaches still requires ground truth: confirmation that koalas truly use a location.

That is the role Leo and his fellow dogs fulfil. Through repeated training and rewards, they learn to signal the odour of koala scat while disregarding droppings from other wildlife.

In thick grass, tangled leaf litter and uneven ground, a koala dropping can vanish from human sight long before the scent fades for a trained dog.

Researchers say the gap in effort is substantial. A person conducting a survey may spend an hour carefully searching a small area, repeatedly bending down with their eyes trained on the ground. A dog reading the wind can cover that same area much faster, tracking faint scents drifting between trees.

What training a conservation dog looks like

Leo began training with basic scent-based games. Trainers linked the odour of koala scat to his preferred toy or food. Each time he selected the correct container or location, he received an immediate reward. Gradually, the tasks became harder, moving from controlled indoor exercises into outdoor bushland.

Before a dog is ready for fieldwork, it must be able to:

Skill	What it means in practice
Scent focus	Block out the smells of other wildlife and livestock to focus on koala scat.
Stamina	Remain enthusiastic while working for hours in heat or drizzle.
Clear signals	Give a reliable behaviour, such as sitting or pawing, when making a find.
Obedience	Immediately follow recall and stop commands near cliffs, roads or stock.

The dogs use GPS collars and, where required, cooling vests. Frequent rest periods and health assessments protect their wellbeing. Jacqui’s vet nurse experience provides additional supervision, with close attention paid to their joints, paws and hydration.

Why koala poop matters for policy

Queensland koalas contend with several threats, including habitat loss, vehicle strikes and chlamydia infections that may lead to infertility and blindness. Governments and landholders require dependable information when deciding on logging restrictions, housing developments and restoration schemes.

Scat surveys address fundamental questions: Are koalas there? How broadly are they distributed? Are their populations declining or becoming stable? Detection dogs provide those answers more rapidly and with increased certainty, potentially affecting where limited conservation funding is directed.

Each tiny pile of scat logged by Leo’s team becomes another data point in national models predicting the future of koala populations.

Where results reveal a steep decline in detections within a particular area, this may prompt further examination of disease outbreaks, heat-stress incidents or recent land clearing.

Rescue dogs as conservation partners

Leo’s experience also reflects an emerging approach: sourcing prospective working dogs from rescue centres rather than exclusively from purpose-bred litters. Energetic crosses involving border collies, kelpies and cattle dogs may find urban homes challenging, but can excel in search work.

For shelters, collaboration with detection programmes offers another route for dogs that could otherwise spend years awaiting the “right” adopter. Conservation organisations, meanwhile, gain access to a continuing supply of possible recruits without promoting further large-scale breeding.

This approach relies on thorough assessment. Rescue dogs are not all suited to fieldwork. Some are uncomfortable with loud sounds, while others become anxious around unfamiliar people or livestock. Rather than seeking perfection, trainers assess a combination of curiosity, toy drive and resilience.

What “scat” means and why scientists chase it

“Scat” is simply the term for animal droppings collected for scientific research. With many species, gathering scat is easier and causes less stress than taking blood or tissue samples. Researchers can obtain DNA, hormone information and clues about diet from a single pellet.

For koalas, scat analysis can show:

• Which individual or family group occupied an area.
• Evidence of illnesses such as chlamydia.
• Dietary quality through leaf fragments and chemical markers.
• Contact with environmental contaminants, including pesticides.

Detection dogs function as mobile sampling units. Teams can work from ground level with minimal disruption, instead of trapping or tagging koalas, both of which involve stress and risk. This method is appropriate for sensitive sites and creates fewer issues for ethics approvals.

Where this approach could head next

The achievements of Leo and comparable dogs suggest several future applications. Other threatened Australian species, including gliders and quolls, produce distinctive scat as well. Some programmes already prepare dogs to find rare reptiles, invasive plants and even fungal diseases affecting trees.

As extreme heat and fire events place increasing strain on wildlife, swift surveys supported by trained dogs could help identify survivors and target rescue or habitat assistance. Conservation planners are already trialling mixed teams in which a dog searches for koala scat in the morning and invasive predators such as foxes in the afternoon.

For people living close to koala habitat, Leo’s story also has a practical message. Reporting wild koala sightings, joining community tree-planting days and backing local koala care groups all support the same objective as detection teams: maintaining sufficient healthy trees and connected habitat for the animals Leo works so hard to locate.

For shelters, meanwhile, his path from unwanted stray to trained wildlife worker shows that the restless energy behind a kennel door may belong to a specialist nose waiting for work that finally fits.