Training Rats to Detect Landmines and Save Lives
CISR
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(Nature) Bahati Abuu, a rat trainer at the NGO APOPO in Morogoro, Tanzania, specializes in training African giant pouched rats (Cricetomys gambianus) to detect landmines. These cat-sized rats, native to sub-Saharan Africa, are used in mine-clearing programs worldwide, including in Angola, Azerbaijan, and Cambodia. Their size and longevity make them ideal for this task, though it takes between nine months and a year to train one fully. Using clicker training, Abuu and his colleagues reward the rats for associating clicks with food, gradually teaching them to identify buried explosives.
They use tea-eggs filled with TNT during the early stages, transitioning to real deactivated landmines as the rats advance. The rats' natural curiosity and keen sense of smell aid their success, though the training process is continually adjusted to keep up with the rats' intelligence. Each rat's progress varies, but most eventually succeed in the demanding training regimen.
