On this hot August Saturday, with the midday sun bearing down on South Africa’s Karoo shrublands, conservation biologist Michelle Marie Schroeder moves methodically across the parched grass. At her side trot Lyka and Tikka—not fellow scientists, but expertly trained detection dogs. Their target: scat from black-footed cats, one of Africa’s most elusive nocturnal mammal species.

Black-footed cats, known locally as ‘miershooptier’, spend daylight hours hidden in burrows and only emerge after dusk, making traditional tracking methods unreliable and labor-intensive. Last night, Lyka signaled a fresh find near the old windmill by the edge of Beaufort West—evidence that these small predators are present in the area, despite no human sightings this month.

The project, led by Schroeder in partnership with the Endangered Wildlife Trust, is part of a broader initiative to improve biodiversity monitoring for SDG 15 (Life on Land). Detection dogs are being used not just for black-footed cats, but also for pangolins and other cryptic species across southern Africa. Since May 2026, the team has documented a 30% increase in confirmed black-footed cat range using dog-assisted surveys compared to camera traps alone.

While detection dogs have been used in North America and Europe for conservation work, their deployment in the Karoo marks a significant step for African field research. Funding remains limited: the current program operates on a budget of less than $70,000 for 2026, with no new grants confirmed for next year. As South Africa’s biodiversity sector faces pressure from both climate change and economic development, scalable monitoring tools like detection dogs are drawing attention from regional policymakers.

SDG Talking will be following whether this canine-led approach leads to concrete conservation actions or remains a well-publicized pilot. For now, on this summer afternoon, Lyka’s nose is providing data that camera traps and satellite images cannot match.