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Posted: 12th December 2012

World’s first archaeology dog trained
Image: Gary Jackson
Dog is able to locate bones that are hundreds of years old

A black labrador mix named Migaloo has been taught by an Australian dog trainer to sniff out bones which are hundreds of years old, and has been dubbed as the world’s first archaeology dog.

Since a canine nose is equipped with around 200 million more olfactory receptors than a human’s, scientists are turning to dogs more frequently as field assistants to track and monitor populations of wild species.

These “conservation dogs” have been used to sniff out creatures of all different sizes, ranging from lizards to gorillas, and have also been used to pinpoint where invasive plants are growing.

Gary Jackson, a dog trainer from Australia, began by teaching Migaloo to recognise the odour of human bones, and taught her that she only gets her ball when she finds the target odour; she became obsessive with trying to find that odour. Now all Jackson needs to do is ask Migaloo if she wants the ball and she heads off to sniff out the scent.

Once she has located the scent, she focuses on one spot and “kind of goes crazy” until Jackson tells her to "show me." Then she'll put her nose on the ground and start moonwalking backward from the spot where she smells it.

To test her new skills, Jackson got permission from the Aboriginal tribal elders to use some ancestral bones from the South Australian Museum's collection. He re-created an Aboriginal graveyard, and also scattered some animal bones there. The dog was able to find a buried bone from about ten feet (three metres) away, even if it's as small as a fingernail.

Migaloo’s journey does not end there. Jackson is starting to look at not only human remains, but cross-training her on pottery and fossils. He is also hoping to be able to take Migaloo to France and Belgium next year to try to discover some lost WWII graves on former battlefields that are now farmland.



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