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Exploration
of Ancient Key-Dweller Remains on the Gulf Coast of Florida
TANASI
NEWS
Dog Archaeologist Sniffs out Ancient Human Remains
NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE FEATURES)--Aug. 24, 2000--Eagle, an eight year-old
Doberman Pinscher-German Shorthaired Pointer-turned archaeologist, has a nose
like no other for locating ancient human remains, according to a story in the
September/October issue of ARCHAEOLOGY Magazine by Brenda Smiley, a contributing
writer to ARCHAEOLOGY. Sniffing out human remains is a field pioneered by
Eagle--the only dog in the world certified for such work.
Gifted with unusual olfactory abilities, Eagle is the star of Canine
Solutions Inc., a Virginia-based company that trains dogs for all manner of
tracking and cadaver search. Sandra Anderson, a 40 year-old part Cherokee and
mother of two teenagers who directs the Company's Michigan detection task
training division and trained Eagle, doesn't think the dog has supernatural
powers like some Midwestern Baskerville hound, but she does describe incidents
involving Eagle that are downright eerie, like the time he scouted the entire
River Raisin battlefield in Monroe, Michigan, in a matter of hours, nosing out
dozens of bodies and other artifacts that helped set the historical record
straight, and then two days later discovered heretofore undetected Indian
burials in the center of Monroe. "Without Eagle, it would have taken us
years, perhaps decades, to accurately locate all the actual sites and correlate
them with old historic records," says Ralph Naveaux, a local archaeologist
and Monroe's historical museum director.
Police familiar with Eagle's work are also duly impressed. "I've worked
with dogs before, but I've never seen anything like him," says Toledo
Detective Sgt. Keefe Snyder. "Every time he hits, there's something there.
He never misses. He's the best thing since DNA."
Eagle stole the show at a recent Wisconsin murder trial when he was given a
blind test to find a paper bag, concealed in the courtroom, containing a
handkerchief with a washed-out human bloodstain on it. Two similar bags, also
concealed, had handkerchiefs soaked in pig and cow blood. Eagle astonished the
court by making a beeline for the bag with the handkerchief stained with human
blood. The feat confirmed Eagle's credibility and led to a murder conviction.
"The dog's nose is like our eyes--the main sensory link to the
world," states Bill Dotson, a microbiologist and CEO of Canine Solutions.
In historic searches, Eagle is detecting miniscule traces of gas that are given
off by bone. When he is actively sampling the air, drawing in the gas in much
the same way we sniff a stew, it sets off a cascade of biological events that
signal the brain's olfactory processing area and other associated areas. There,
the information is integrated with his other brain activities such as memory,
communication, movement, and emotion. Once decoded, and because of imprinted
learning, Eagle can now tell us, 'hey, that's a steak, or this is a human
bone.'"
Eagle's abilities continue to mystify the experts. What is it in that odor
molecule that triggers a response, allowing Eagle to distinguish between human
and animal--and to locate the smallest bit of human tooth, a drop of blood, a
hair follicle, a fragment of a human bone more than a thousand years old?
"We don't know," Sandra Anderson concedes. "We humans say, 'Okay,
we've got the body down, the DNA chains, proteins, amino acids.' But maybe a dog
at Eagle's level is hitting that envelope because there's something out there we
haven't discovered yet. I know that sounds sci-fi, but hey, that's exciting,
isn't it?"
