The Rat Pack - Leading the way

Large tracts of Angola and Mozambique are being cleared of land mines, owing to crack teams of sniffer rats. Indigenous to Sub-Saharan Africa, African giant pouched rats – which can grow as large as cats – have a highly developed sense of smell.

Now, a Belgian NGO named Apopo is training the creatures to detect land mines from their scent. Each time they find one, the rats – which are too light to set the mines off – signal by scratching frantically and are rewarded with fruit. With the rats’ help, Apopo has already destroyed more than 13,000 mines, reclaiming more than 1,100 hectares of land. Spotted in the week.