The roughly nine-month training process begins when the rats are just old enough to open their eyes, around 5 weeks old. “They’re a bit larger than a typical rat - maybe not a New York street rat - but they can cover more ground in a shorter amount of time,” Fast says. They’re also quick little workers, capable of clearing 2,000 square feet in 20 minutes, which could take a human as much as four days. The rats are so light, they won’t set off buried explosives, and unlike dogs, they can bond with multiple handlers at a time. Much of the giant-pouched rat’s advantage in finding mines has to do with that olfactory superiority - but they’re also well suited for the harsh, dry heat of sub-Saharan Africa, where they’re trained. They’re inquisitive about people.” Baby rats that will be trained to detect land mines. “Maybe because we start socializing them when they’re so young. “They tend to be a little more social than what you normally think of with a rat,” Fast says. These aren’t just any old pizza-addicted subway rats, though.Īpopo works with African giant-pouched rats, which typically weigh between 2 and 3 pounds, and are highly intelligent with an acute sense of smell. They’re friendly and they’re furry and they’re cute.” “Everyone has such great respect for them.
Cynthia Fast, who heads up training and behavioral research at Apopo’s headquarters at Sokoine University of Agriculture in Morogoro, Tanzania. “We call them our hero rats every day,” says Dr. In countries such as Cambodia, Angola and Mozambique, rats with whimsical names like Uncle Albert, Maya Angelou and Jane Goodall have helped clear nearly 8½ square miles of land mine-stricken fields since Apopo was founded 20 years ago. “After I’d worked with them for one month, I thought, ‘Oh, they’re so smart,’ ” he said. I thought rats were useless,” Soeun Prom says with a laugh.īut in 2015, Prom began working with Apopo, a Tanzania-based organization that trains rats to sniff out land mines in his native Cambodia - and since then he’s gained nothing but respect for the oft-maligned creatures.
I never believed a rat could do that job. They’ve now become the most successful way to find land mines. They’re the scourge of New York City, but on the other side of the world, rats have a different title - lifesaver. The leptospirosis outbreak in filthy, rat-infested NYC killed my puppy!
Woman hit in eye with subway water sparks debate over grossest NYC encountersĮric Adams so far is sticking to the common-sense positions he ran on Why I love New York's massive rat infestation
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