Magawa- the rat- is retiring after five years of sniffing out land mines and unexploded ordnance in Cambodia. He’s directly responsible for saving the lives of untold numbers of men, women, and children. Magawa, who sniffed out hazardous, unexploded weapons of war in Cambodia, credited with leading his handlers to more than 100 buried explosive devices.
Magawa received a gold medal last year from Britain’s People’s Dispensary for Sick Animals for “lifesaving bravery and devotion to duty”, an honour so far exclusively reserved for dogs.
This rat was not only good at his job, but he did it more safely than a human
could. At 2.6 pounds, he is too light to trigger the pressure plate on an
anti-personnel mine. Placed on a leash, Magawa could wander ahead of a human
into dangerous territory without worry he might cause an explosion.
Now, Cambodia has deployed its next generation of rat recruits to sniff out landmines. Twenty African giant pouched rats were recently imported from Tanzania and have undergone intense training. While many rodents can be trained to detect scents and will work at repetitive tasks for food rewards, APOPO decided that African giant pouched rats were best suited to land mine clearance because their size allows them to walk across mine fields without triggering the explosives — and do it much more quickly than people. They also live up to eight years.
Scarred by decades of civil war, Cambodia is one of the world’s most heavily landmined countries, with more than 1,000 sq km (621 sq miles) of land still contaminated.
“They are all easy to work with and they don’t care about who their handlers are,” said handler So Malen, during an exercise for seven recruits in Preah Vihear province, bordering Thailand. “Any one of us can be their handler and most importantly, they don’t bite.”
Cambodia has among the highest number of amputees per capita, with more than 40,000 people losing limbs to explosives.
