Siem Reap –Rats are plague carrying vermin. The only good rat is a dead one, I once believed. Then I met these rats. In Cambodia, these rats are called heroes. When I first arrived in Siem Reap, Cambodia, 25 years ago, I couldn’t help but notice the large number of amputees. People missing limbs because of landmines and unexploded devices planted during Cambodia’s genocide and wars. Cambodia is one of the world’s most heavily mined countries. Many of its victims were children. In one case I was told the story of nine children in a village who died while playing near an unexploded landmine. At one time 65 percent of Cambodia’s land was considered mined. Today that number is down to10 percent, mostly on the borders near Thailand thanks in part to the hero rats who helped to detect these mines. In another five to six years, Cambodia is expected to be landmine free.

The rats trained to detect landmines are African pouch rats. They have a strong sense of smell, about 50 times better than a dog. Unlike most rats who only live for about three years, African pouch rats can live up to eight years. Because they are small and light, they cannot set off a landmine.

Hero rats go through a year of vigorous training in Tanzania before being deployed for service in places like Cambodia. They are taught by their trainers to sniff out TNT. When they locate TNT, they begin to scratch the ground and are given food as a reward. They are so successful they can clear an area the size of a football field in 30 minutes, whereas it would take a human with a metal detector four to five days. The hero rats helped to clear out over 13,000 landmines in Mozambique rendering the country landmine free. After deployment, hero rats usually work for five to six years. They get to spend their final years living in an air conditioned rat condo and are given plenty of delicious food to eat.

Among the most successful of all hero rats was “Magawa,” 2013-2022. In his lifetime, Magawa cleared more than 56 acres of land in Cambodia, finding more than 100 landmines and other devices. He was described by his trainer as an, “Exceptional rat.” In 2020 the United Kingdom awarded Magawa the PSDA Gold Medal. An award given to hero animals that have saved human lives. Until Magawa, all previous winners had been dogs.

Training African pouch rats to detect landmines and other explosive devices began as a research project in Belgium in 1997 by the Anti- Personnel Landmines Detection Product Development (APOPO). APOPO’s work with rats in detecting landmines has been so successful, it has now starting to use them in detecting tuberculosis in humans and in searching for survivors of earthquakes. In detecting TB in humans, the rats are trained to sniff sputum samples that may have been misdiagnosed. They can evaluate 40 sputum samples in under seven minutes. That would normally be full days work for a lab tech.

To visit the APOPO Center in Siem Reap, learn more about the organization’s work or adopt and support a hero rat visit:https://apopo.org/