Huge rats of up to 1.5 kg are trained and used in the first line for the detection of ground mines, the locals saying they have an extremely developed odor and have not missed any mine so far.
The rats are trained to detect mines. Photo AP News
Cambodia rats help specialists detect terrestrial mines that have killed and mutilated thousands of people in this country in Southeast Asia, writes AP News
Giant African rats with marsupiu, which can grow up to 45 centimeters (about 18 inches) and weigh up to 1.5 kilograms (more than 3 pounds), are in the first line, crossing their agile road to signal their trainer when they smell of TNT, used in most land and explosive mines.
“They never jumped over any mine”said Mott Sreymom, a rat trainer at Apopo, a humanitarian group of demination that instructs and conducts rodent detection teams.
“I have great confidence in these detectors of me“, Mott told the Associated Press in the lunch break, after working on a field of terrestrial mines in the province of SIEM Reap.
After three decades of conflict in the previous century, war remains crowded about 4,500 square kilometers (approximately 1,737 square miles) of Cambodian land, according to a study by the Cambodian Authority for Mines and Victim Assistance (CMAA) in 2004.
Since 2018, CMAA reported that 1,970 square kilometers (760 square miles) remained undefrited.
The rats have a sharp smell sense, which you prefer at Apopo, which also uses dogs for detecting ground mines.
“Dogs and rats are better compared to other animals because they are easy to train“, Said Alberto Zacarias, a field supervisor of the technical study teams of Apopo, adding that they are also friendly and learn the orders.
Ever since the official was started in Cambodia in 1992, over 1.1 million mines, as well as about 2.9 million explosive war residues, according to a governmental report on the 2022 demination.
And the African giant rats with marsupiu do their part.
“We work with them almost daily, so we get closer”said Mott. “Are very friendly and does not move and not scared. I'm like a family.“
