TRAVEL MOMENT BY VILLE PALONEN
HERO RATS
APOPO is a Belgian non-governmental organisation with an extraordinary agenda: training African giant pouched rats to detect landmines. At the NGO’s headquarters in Morogoro, Tanzania, rats are also trained to identify tuberculosis samples. These giant rats are fondly referred to as ‘HeroRATs’ because they save lives. APOPO has used them for landmine detection in Angola and Mozambique, and now the rats are being deployed along the border areas of Cambodia.
African giant pouched rats are relatively inexpensive to breed, and training is done using a simple conditioning technique: find a bomb, get a treat. After only a few months of training, a HeroRAT is able to inspect a mined area much faster than a person with a metal detector. But don’t worry, these rats are too light to set off a landmine! Even though rats do not bond closely with humans, APOPO trainers treat these tiny heroes with all the affection they deserve. APRIL 2016
BLUE WINGS
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