Giving Opportunities
Featured Fund: Center for Conservation Biology Support Fund
Protecting Threatened Species, One Sniff at a Time
Dogs may be man’s best friend, but a team of specially trained canines are also improving the lives of bears, owls, elephants, caribou and other animals at risk due to human impacts.
The dogs-- part of the UW’s Center for Conservation Biology’s Conservation Canine program--are trained to detect animal scat (feces) from a variety of animal species, even detecting scat in deep snow from a quarter of a mile away. With those scat samples, researchers can learn a great deal about animals without disturbing them or their habitat. Through genetic and hormonal analysis of the samples, they can estimate a species’ population, distribution, and reproduction, and assess physiological stress caused by factors such as man-made disturbances.
The work of the Center for Conservation Biology, based in the UW Department of Biology, is possible thanks to private support, including the UW Endowed Chair in Conservation Biology established by multiple donors, and major gifts from the Moore Foundation and the Bosack and Kruger Foundation.
Support the UW Center for Conservation Biology.
See the Conservation Canines in Action .
Why We Give |
|| |
Your Gift at Work |
 |
 |
Retired physician Dick Wesley completed his residency in 1978 at the UW’s School of Medicine, along with lifelong friend Melvin E. Belding. Now the friends are back at the UW, thanks to the Access program, which allows those aged 60 and older to audit courses.
View the Story |
Two UW undergraduate students will head to Kenya in September, thanks to an award from the Jennifer Caldwell Endowed Fund in Human Rights. The students will receive $1,000 to work on a human rights, education and health project in Kenya’s Loitokitok community.
View the Story |
More Giving Stories

