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#1
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03-24-2018, 05:03 AM
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 My Rank: FIRST SERGEANT Poster Rank:478 Join Date: May 2016 Posts: 2,201 Mentioned: 29 Post(s) Quoted: 1609 Post(s)
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Land Mine Detection Rats
Innovative and adorable, bananas as rewards, I love animals. APOPO HeroRATS, circa '97. We Train Rats to Save Lives African Giant Pouched Rats, already used to detect land mines in Tanzania and Mozambique, are now being deployed to clear fields of unexploded mines in Cambodia, one of the most bombed and mined countries in the world. The Belgian non-governmental organization (NGO) which developed the program of land mine detecting rats, APOPO (Anti-Personnel Land mines Detection Product Development in English), was founded in 1997. The rats detect land mines with their well-developed sense of smell and don't weigh enough to set off pressure-activated ones. The Cambodian Mine Action Center (CMAC) working with the Belgian NGO, APOPO, recently began testing the feasibility of using large land mine detection rats from Tanzania to help clear fields in the mine-pocked country. The rats are trained for about nine months to become what APOPO calls "HeroRATs". The rats learn to differentiate among a variety of smells and face a two-day test before they go out in the field. In addition to Tanzania, Mozambique and Cambodia, the mine detecting rat program is operating in Thailand, Angola, Vietnam and Laos. The program has detected and neutralized at least 19,558 land mines and 6,068 unexploded ordnance (UXO) since it began. UXO are explosive weapons such as bombs, grenade and shells that have not exploded when employed and still pose the risk of detonation, often many decades later. The rats must pass the same rigorous training that land mine-sniffing canines do. Unlike most people, APOPO founder and Dutch product designer, Bart Weetjens grew up playing with rats as pets. He explained his innovative idea to use HeroRATS in a Ted Talk, "How I taught rats to sniff out land mines." In additional to searching out buried explosives, APOPO is now training rats to detect the presence of tuberculosis in hospitals. APOPO's unusual mission is defined by them as "solving pressing humanitarian challenges with detection rats technology." The organization believes it can provide global solutions and inspire social change with the 'technology.' https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/APOPO  ·  ·  ·  ·  · |
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#5
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03-24-2018, 09:00 PM
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| My Rank: FIRST SERGEANT Poster Rank:478 Join Date: May 2016 Posts: 2,201 Mentioned: 29 Post(s) Quoted: 1609 Post(s)
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Re: Land Mine Detection Rats
Hey, that was my initial thought but the rats are too light to set them off. That is until they've been rewarded with too much banana. |
