Unexploded landmines and bombs from the Vietnam and Cambodian Civil Wars have been a huge problem in Cambodia for many decades. This problem is slowly being fixed with the help of an organization called APOPO. APOPO is a non-profit organization that uses specially-trained African giant pouched rats from Tanzania to sniff out the explosives so that a professional bomb/mine remover can either remove the bomb or safely set it off. The rats are trained by smelling TNT while the trainer makes a clicking noise with a little device and then reinforces the rat’s correct find by giving it some food. Each rat weighs about 1-1.5 kilos, and the minimum weight needed to set off the mines is 2 kilos. This organization uses rats instead of machines like metal detectors because the rats have been trained only to smell the explosives, not the scrap metal that metal detectors also pick up. These HeroRATs can cover the area the size of a tennis court in about 30 minutes whereas a manual machine takes roughly 4 days to cover the same area. In 2019, 353,000 sq meters were cleared and 371 unexploded mines and bombs were removed with the help of these HeroRATS. This project is not cheap, though… Care for each rat costs about $6,600 per year, without any help from the government. The rats are cared for really well with weekly vet checkups, well-trained handling, and a high quality diet. The organization receives money from monthly donations as well as from people touring their museum. We visited this museum and got to learn about how everything works, as well as see a demonstration of a HeroRAT finding TNT inside of a piece of metal in the ground (and passing over metal that didn’t have any TNT in it)! It’s pretty amazing how well-trained and capable these rats are. They’re cute too!
Looks fascinating and I love rats! We’re definitely making this a stop on our Siem Reap visit!
We’re excited to hear what you guys think of it!
Wow!!! Animals are amazing!
Yes, it’s amazing how much animals can be taught!
Wow! Molly says she has read articles about this before but this is the first I have heard of Herorats. Sounds like they are aptly named! Demining is SO important. I didn’t realize the rats were so quick and effective. I am surprised it costs that much to maintain each rat but I probably shouldn’t be. It would be much more expensive here in the States I am sure. Thank you for sharing about this, William!
It’s a really amazing process. I love how the rats are treated well too — enough food, regular exercise, etc. It was fun getting to see a demonstration in person!
That is amazing, what an incredible use of a very LARGE rat!
🙂 I couldn’t think of a better way to use them!! It made me feel better when we learned that even though the rats are huge, they still aren’t heavy enough to set off any of the mines.
They are adorable heroes, indeed! Thanks for sharing about this. I’d heard about it, but never looked into it before now. Animals are amazing helpers in so many ways. We recently had service dogs come to our cubscout pack meeting with their owners, and the kids were impressed with what those dogs could learn to do – I can just imagine what they’d think about these critters!
That’s neat that the service dogs came to the meeting! I bet the kids would love the rats.