What Happened to Amelia Earhart? These Dogs Are on a Mission to Sniff Out Her Remains

A pack of specially-trained dogs will attempt to locate Amelia Earhart’s remains on an island near Fiji where the trailblazing American aviator may have vanished decades ago.

The four forensic canines — border collies trained to detect human remains — will be sent to Nikumaroro to help solve the mystery of Earhart’s disappearance, according to National Geographic.

“No other technology is more sophisticated than the dogs,” said Fred Hiebert, archaeologist in residence at the National Geographic Society, which is sponsoring the search. “They have a higher rate of success identifying things than ground-penetrating radar.”

Earhart, the first woman to fly solo across the Atlantic Ocean, disappeared somewhere over the Pacific Ocean during a 1937 journey with navigator Fred Noonan. But the exact location of Earhart’s final location has long stumped aviation historians and explorers alike, despite multiple expeditions and competing theories.

The dogs, which come from the Institute for Canine Forensics, will embark on their journey with their human explorer counterparts Saturday from Fiji, according to National Geographic. “If the dogs are successful, it will be the discovery of a lifetime,” Hiebert told the magazine.

[National Geographic]