By Lauren Beavis
Meet the specially trained HeroRATS who “save lives every day” – by sniffing out hidden landmines in Cambodia.
Cambodia has one of the highest concentrations of landmines in the world.
APOPO is a non-profit organization who help save thousands of lives with rats that quickly find these unexploded landmines.
Lily Shallom, communications manager at APOPO explained: “As the animals are so fast at detecting the mines and too light to trigger an explosion, the humans or APOPO clear the mines.”
The organization also uses the tiny animals to help solve other humanitarian issues – such as detecting tuberculosis.
To date, thanks to the rats and impact team, 107,633 landmines and unexploded bombs have been destroyed safely, 23,623,496 meters squared of minefields have been transformed into safe land for local communities, and 964,940 people have been freed from the threat of explosives.
Landmines not only cause tragic accidents, they are a barrier to development constraining communities and denying access to fertile land, travel routes and basic needs, says the organization.
As the HeroRATS are too light to set off the landmines and are very quick at finding them with their incredible sense of smell, APOPO state the animals are great for speeding up detection.
This means that once-dangerous land is now being made safe for communities to live and farm on.
Each morning the HeroRATS and their trainers head out for training at APOPO’s 60-acre training minefield – which has 1,500 real, defused mines planted in different ‘boxes’ of varying size that trainers prepare by marking a boundary.
Rats are then harnessed to a rope – where they then ‘systematically’ search the box using its nose.
The animals then scratch at the surface when they find a buried landmine.
For every identified landmine, the trainer will then ‘click’ a button on the rope and reward the HeroRAT with a food treat.
At the APOPO visitor center in Siem Reap, visitors can view live demonstrations of the rats, as well as learn how they are trained and hear stories of how they are changing lives for the better.
Each rat receives a daily health check and their weight is recorded to ‘ensure each animal is growing healthy and strong while keeping them motivated to work’.
According to the organization, not a single HeroRAT has ever been hurt or injured as a result of their detection work.
