Science on Screen®: Sniffing Out Science with Lindsay Ware and Her Conservation Scent Detection Dogs

The Gem has received a 2025 Science on Screen Grant and we are partnering with BAAM to bring you five S.T.E.A.M. events centered around the senses: Taste, Smell, Sound, Sight, and Touch. This event is our fourth event in the series – it’s time to STOP and find out how tracking dogs smell out a target!

Please join us Saturday, June 14th, at 3:30pm. We welcome Lindsay Ware and her conservation scent detection dogs to The Gem for a presentation called “Sniffing Out Science.” Lindsay will bring one or two of her scent detection dogs to do an outdoor demonstration & talk. Following the presentation, we will show the GKIDS film Wolfwalkers.

Lindsay Ware is a conservation dog trainer who, in 2018, decided to combine two of her passions – conservation biology and dog training – to found Science Dogs of New England. What started as an interest in helping hunters track game has grown into a range of dog-powered work that comprises conservation detection, including helping scientists find – and, ultimately, protect – rare turtles. Lindsay lives in Ellsworth, Maine, and has four working dogs – two dedicated to tracking game animals and two trained in conservation scent detection.  

Photo Credit: Matt Gagnon

In her presentation, Lindsay will demonstrate the incredible way dogs use their sense of smell to track down specific targets. A conservation dog can be trained to sniff out a rare species of plant or animal. One popular application is training dogs to find animal scat – biologists can find amazing information in scat – DNA, diet, hormones – it’s a goldmine to researchers. The dogs can also be trained to find small elusive animals that are camouflaged in the natural world. Lindsay and her labrador, Chili Bean, and her Australian Shepherd, Delta, currently spend most of their time tracking down rare wood turtles as part of the Maine Wood Turtle Project.

Photo Credit: Cheryl Frederick

Wolfwalkers Film Synopsis: A young apprentice hunter and her father journey to Ireland to help wipe out the last wolf pack. But everything changes when she befriends a free-spirited girl from a mysterious tribe rumored to transform into wolves by night.

3:30 to 4:00pm: An Outdoor Demonstration and Talk with Lindsay Ware & Her Conservation Scent Detection Dogs (Indoors if rainy).

4:00 to 4:15pm Transition into the theater for the film – get food & go to the bathroom

4:15 to 6:00 Film Wolf Walkers from GKIDS

A huge thank you to:

An initiative of the COOLIDGE CORNER THEATRE, with major support from the ALFRED P. SLOAN FOUNDATION.

Tickets for this event are Pay What You Can. All proceeds go to helping cover the cost of the Science on Screen event and to support BAAM programming. We encourage MSAD44 area students to choose the $0 ticket.