"Preliminary results- Fecal samples are increasingly used in wildlife research to confirm species’ presence and to estimate population densities, which could be promising to monitor the elusive pine marten (Martes martes) [1, 2]. Wildlife detection dogs can increase the sampling success by efficiently searching an area, generating a higher sample size and a more homogeneous data set [3]. Within a pilot study to estimate pine marten density in Baden-Wuerttemberg, Germany, we compared the effectiveness of trained fieldworkers versus a detection dog-team to collect pine marten scat samples. Our results suggest that fieldworkers tend to miss a substantial amount of scat samples of important quality and from certain habitat structures."