Of Mice And Mines

According to the International Campaign to Ban Landmines, an estimated 15-20,000 people are killed by landmines each year. Detecting those mines—without setting them off—is a dilemma that faces many post-conflict regions of the world. But Bart Weetjens may have found a six-pound solution to the problem: the African giant pouched rat. Working for APOPO, a Belgian organization founded to explore the idea, Weetjens has successfully trained rats to locate land mines by smell. The animals have also been trained to identify tuberculosis from samples, a development that may prove equally promising.

Beginning with a stock of thirty animals, APOPO has now trained more than 120 free-running "Hero Rats," twenty-three of which are certified by an international agency as equal to dogs in effectiveness.

Of Mice and Mines

Originally from Neatorama