Tarazet

Hero Rats!

Really! Rats are now being employed alongside dogs to help find land mines. From Reuters:

Reuters photo

A giant African rat has become man's second-best friend as it joins forces with the dog to sniff out land mines in Mozambique.

The Belgian de-mining research group APOPO has eight of the rodents working alongside dogs and metal detectors on a minefield in Mozambique's coastal town of Vilanculos, some 405 miles northeast of the capital Maputo.

The Gambian giant pouched rats are helping to clear a stretch of fertile land that has lain fallow since a savage civil war ended in 1992.

Land mines are an insidious legacy of that conflict that maim and kill Mozambicans to this day, including rural children who were born long after the guns were silenced.

Neat, huh? The fact is, both dogs and rats (and many other animals of course) have much sharper senses than we do and since rats are easily trained -- ie: smart -- they are perfect for the job. And, of course, they are light enough (even these "beefy fella's) that they won't set off the mine themselves.

Once again, animals come to our aid.

Posted by Jeff Soyer at January 29, 2005 07:40 PM