Rats Save Lives in Mozambique
CHEN: Giant rats in are being used to detect landmines in Mozambique. The rats, too light to set off the mines, are trained to smell and point them out to their handlers. Let’s see how these peanut munchers are helping clear some deadly hazards. STORY: These giant pouched rats are working hard to rid Mozambique of landmines. Landmines are a dangerous legacy of the 16 year civil war with Portugal which ended in 1994. According to Handicap International, an estimated 20 people step on landmines every month in Mozambique. Under the umbrella organisation of APOPO, an NGO concerned with the global landmine problem, researchers came up with the idea for using rats in landmine detection. Seeing the expense and slowness of traditional methods using metal detectors and other foreign and expensive technologies, these researchers found the rat to be a ready local solution. [Mkumbo, Senior Rat Trainer]: “Rats are the animal which are social. They like friendship, you can handle them easily, you can train them easily, you can keep them easily. Also, they are intelligent to know what you need them to learn.” These rats are light and will not explode mines, allowing them to sniff out TNT, then scratch the earth as a sign to their handler that a mine is present. The animal is then rewarded with a loud “click” from their trainer and a few peanuts and a bit of banana. The rats learn quickly to not miss a mine, or they might miss a meal. When they’re not in the field, the rats train twice a …
