VICTORIA, British Columbia, March 20 (UPI) -- A rural British Columbia search-and-rescue group is banking on a Minnesota man to teach their horses to become trained "sniffers" like dogs.
The Arrowsmith Search and Rescue group is based in Parksville on Vancouver Island, and has about 10 members who use horses to search for missing people in rugged terrain.
Next month, they'll undergo training from Terry Nowacki, who has been developing horse-scent training since 2000, the island's Victoria Times-Colonist newspaper reported.
Nowacki claims horses' height can track airborne scents that dogs might miss closer to the ground, although he advocates using the animals in tandem.
He said under ideal wind conditions in open territory, horses can detect human scents up to 1,000 feet away, the report said.
Arrowsmith team member Joe Kinch said he and other team members have noticed their horses occasionally trying to communicate something in past searches.
"I don't believe it's as crazy as it sounds," Kinch said. "We just don't know how to get (horses) to tell us."
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