Hero rats

From vermin to heroes

Sniffer rats are used to detect land mines and tuberculosis in Tanzania and Mozambique

Contrary to public opinion, rats can actually save lives – Apopo's rats (African giant pouched rat Cricetomys ansorgei)

have actually saved thousands.

Mostly, though, they are highly trained to sniff out land mines and detect tuberculosis -- two scourges that have had a tremendously

negative impact across the African continent.A single rat can clear 200 square feet in an hour (done manually,

the same area would take 50 hours to clear). A TB-detection rat can evaluate 50 samples in eight minutes

(almost a day's work for a lab technician).

A baby rat in a tiny harness twitches its pointed nose incessantly, probing a field where it is being trained by a pioneering Dutch Non Governmental Organisation in Tanzania to sniff out deadly landmines. Picture: YASUYOSHI CHIBA/AFP/Getty Images

The two-month-old baby rat walks unsteadily across the weedy patch followed by two trainers rolling a bar that teaches her to go back and forth across the patch in straight lines. Picture: YASUYOSHI CHIBA/AFP/Getty Images

"Detection is the most difficult, dangerous and expensive part of mine action. Since rats are much easier to train than dogs, rats in this environment are much more appropriate," said Bart Weetjens, the founder of APOPO. Picture: YASUYOSHI CHIBA/AFP/Getty Images

Weetjens said the next frontier would be to use the rats to sniff out narcotics or to search for survivors of disasters such as earthquakes or collapsed buildings. Picture: YASUYOSHI CHIBA/AFP/Getty Images

The rodents are trained to detect the TNT in landmines through behavioural psychology: a click sound to signal a food reward whenever they make the correct detection. Picture: YASUYOSHI CHIBA/AFP/Getty Images

With an acute sense of smell and easily motivated by food rewards, giant African pouched rats have been found to be highly effective in mine detection by APOPO, the Dutch non-governmental organisation that launched the training project - the first of its kind - in this Tanzanian town. Picture: YASUYOSHI CHIBA/AFP/Getty Images

It takes two deminers a day to clear a 200 square-metre (2,150 square-feet) minefield, but if they work with two rats they can sweep it in two hours. "They are very effective. We have very high success rates. So far they have helped re-open almost two million square metres of land" in Mozambique, said Bart Weetjens. Picture: YASUYOSHI CHIBA/AFP/Getty Images

APOPO has even launched an Adopt-a-Rat scheme where individuals and corporations can contribute to the upkeep and the training of a sniffer rat, receiving in exchange an adoption certificate and email updates on the animal's training or career. Picture: YASUYOSHI CHIBA/AFP/Getty Images

Training begins at four weeks old when the baby rats are exposed to humans to rid them of their fear of people and new surroundings, after which they are taught to associate a click sound with food. Picture: YASUYOSHI CHIBA/AFP/Getty Images

"This work is not easy," recounts trainer Abdullah Mchomvu. "You have to be patient. Sometimes I get frustrated, but then again I tell myself these are animals, but this work saves lives“. Picture: YASUYOSHI CHIBA/AFP/Getty Images

Once that is achieved, they are then trained to distinguish TNT scent from other smells. When they successfully distinguish it, the click is sounded and they are given a bit of banana, thus reinforcing the link between positive TNT identification and food. Picture: YASUYOSHI CHIBA/AFP/Getty Images

Tanzania-based NGO Apopo trains giant African pouched rats to sniff out land mines and detect tuberculosis -- two scourges that have had a tremendously negative impact on the African landscape.

In 2006, Apopo started testing rats on the mine fields in Mozambique, a country that at that time was one of the worst affected by landmines, thanks mainly to a civil war that ended in 1992.

Since then, Apopo has cleared the country of 6,693 landmines, 29,934 small arms and ammunition, and 1,087 bombs. It is on track to clear Mozambique of landmines by the year's end.

Mine detection rats take nine months to a year to train. The rats are socialized when they are four-weeks-old so that they are comfortable working with humans.

The rats are then conditioned with clicker training, so that they associate the sound of a click with a reward (usually peanuts or bananas). They are then introduced to a target scent (TNT or positive TB samples).

Mine-detection rats are then trained in a sandbox, where they are charged with sniffing out TNT-stuffed tea balls.

In the final stage of training, mine-detection rats demonstrate their abilities at a training field at Morgoro, Tanzania -- the second largest in the world. It has over 1,500 mines, over 14 types are used during different training stages.

After a rat detects a mine, a manual deminer extracts the device. A single rat can clear 200 square feet in under an hour. It will take a manual deminer working alone about 50 hours to clear the same space.

Because rats are small, they are also cheaper to transport and store than dogs -- who are traditionally employed to sniff out mines. In Africa, they are a cheaper option, because they are plentiful and easy to train. Each Apopo rat costs about $7,600 to train (a third the price it costs to train a dog).

In addition to its work in Mozambique, Apopo has participated in mine-clearing projects in a number of countries, including Angola, Cambodia, Thailand, Vietnam and Lao. Here, one of Apopo's training supervisors works with a Cambodian trainer.

A young African giant pouched rat being trained in mine detection by the Belgian NGO Apopo is rewarded with a snack of avocado, milk and peanuts, delivered through a feeding syringe. photo by Sam Jones for the Guardian

The trainee rats travel from their kennels at Apopo’s headquarters to the nearby replica minefield in an old lorry nicknamed the Ratbus. The nocturnal animals train at dawn each day to minimise their exposure to the fierce sun. photo by Sam Jones for the Guardian

Harnessed and guided up and down a mock minefield by two trainers, the rats learn how to sniff out traces of TNT. They alert their handlers by scratching at the suspect spot. photo by Sam Jones for the Guardian

Rats that successfully locate the mines are rewarded by their trainers with a quick mouthful of banana. photo by Sam Jones for the Guardian

The rats, which weigh about a kilo when fully grown, are trained for nine months before being deployed to countries such as Angola and Mozambique. photo by Sam Jones for the Guardian

The cadre of rats currently being trained in Morogoro could be deployed to Cambodia, where Apopo is working to help address the legacy of 30 years of conflict. photo by Sam Jones for the Guardian

Once they are accustomed to human noise, scent and handling, the young rats are taught to associate the sound of a clicker with a reward. photo by Sam Jones for the Guardian

In the early stages of training, the rats learn to sniff out TNT hidden in tea eggs that are buried in beds of earth. Later, they graduate to the mock minefield and its deactivated mines. photo by Sam Jones for the Guardian

Apopo trainer Miraji Saidi poses with his rat. The NGO says its animals can each search 200 square metres of land in just 20 minutes; people using metal detectors would take five days to search the same area. photo by Sam Jones for the Guardian

Other rats in the same project undergo a different type of training - they learn to sniff out tuberculosis in laboratory sputum samples, providing a second-line of screening for hospitals in Tanzania where lab testing has 60 percent accuracy. Picture: YASUYOSHI CHIBA/AFP/Getty Images

Wilbard, a tuberculosis detection rat, at work in the lab. Apopo’s TB rats can screen 100 samples of human sputum in 20 minutes; the same task would take a lab technician four days. photo by Sam Jones for the Guardian

A morning’s training ends and the rats return to the Ratbus. Apopo estimates that it has found and destroyed more than 48,000 landmines and pieces of unexploded ordnance, released almost 18.5m square metres of land to local communities, and freed nearly a million people from the threat of explosives. photo by Sam Jones for the Guardian

Heroes in action

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cast 1 Hero rats

images and text credit www. www.theguardian.com www.liveinternet.ru www.apopo.org

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