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“Some rats check every square inch of the field. They also have their own strategies as they scamper through the field. Some rats catch on quickly, others require a bit more encouragement. “In those most advanced training stages, sometimes there will never even be a mine,” Fast explains. Over time, the plot of land they must search gets larger. With trainers, the rats scour a small area of the field at first, using their olfactory talents to sniff out the land mines that may or may not be lurking below the surface. The training field holds more than 1,500 deactivated land mines buried in soil. “They have to find at least five that are buried with no more than one false alarm, then they move off into our training field,” Fast says. APOPO/James PurseyĪt one point, trainers begin tucking TNT-scented paper into metal tea eggs displayed on a foil-covered table, which the rats must move toward before they hear the click sound that means it’s time for a food reward.Įventually, the eggs are buried in a layer of soil, and the rats learn to scratch the dirt when they smell the eggs with TNT. A rat gets a treat during its training with the Apopo organization. That process is repeated over and over until the rat learns to associate the click with a tasty treat. It starts out simple (and delicious) enough: A rat trainee hears a click, then receives an edible reward in the form of mashed avocados and peanuts. Once they’ve been socialized, they’re ready for the next step: click training. “They have to be used to being handled and wearing a little harness, and not get distracted by all these little things in the world,” Fast says. The babies are exposed to an array of sights, smells and sounds - from the sweet aroma of flowers to the startling roar of a truck’s engine.Īt the end of the first round of training, which lasts about two weeks, the rats need to be focused and unflappable, not at risk of trying to scurry away in the field. “That’s when we train them to be around humans, and also be out in the bigger, scarier world,” Fast says.
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The roughly nine-month training process begins when the rats are just old enough to open their eyes, around 5 weeks old. “They’re a bit larger than a typical rat - maybe not a New York street rat - but they can cover more ground in a shorter amount of time,” Fast says. They’re also quick little workers, capable of clearing 2,000 square feet in 20 minutes, which could take a human as much as four days. The rats are so light, they won’t set off buried explosives, and unlike dogs, they can bond with multiple handlers at a time. Much of the giant-pouched rat’s advantage in finding mines has to do with that olfactory superiority - but they’re also well suited for the harsh, dry heat of sub-Saharan Africa, where they’re trained. They’re inquisitive about people.” Baby rats that will be trained to detect land mines. “Maybe because we start socializing them when they’re so young. “They tend to be a little more social than what you normally think of with a rat,” Fast says. These aren’t just any old pizza-addicted subway rats, though.Īpopo works with African giant-pouched rats, which typically weigh between 2 and 3 pounds, and are highly intelligent with an acute sense of smell. They’re friendly and they’re furry and they’re cute.” “Everyone has such great respect for them. Cynthia Fast, who heads up training and behavioral research at Apopo’s headquarters at Sokoine University of Agriculture in Morogoro, Tanzania. “We call them our hero rats every day,” says Dr. In countries such as Cambodia, Angola and Mozambique, rats with whimsical names like Uncle Albert, Maya Angelou and Jane Goodall have helped clear nearly 8½ square miles of land mine-stricken fields since Apopo was founded 20 years ago. “After I’d worked with them for one month, I thought, ‘Oh, they’re so smart,’ ” he said. I thought rats were useless,” Soeun Prom says with a laugh.īut in 2015, Prom began working with Apopo, a Tanzania-based organization that trains rats to sniff out land mines in his native Cambodia - and since then he’s gained nothing but respect for the oft-maligned creatures. I never believed a rat could do that job. They’ve now become the most successful way to find land mines. They’re the scourge of New York City, but on the other side of the world, rats have a different title - lifesaver. The leptospirosis outbreak in filthy, rat-infested NYC killed my puppy!
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Woman hit in eye with subway water sparks debate over grossest NYC encountersĮric Adams so far is sticking to the common-sense positions he ran on Why I love New York's massive rat infestation