Mine detector rats in Africa

Instead of training mine detection dogs, the Belgian NGO APOPO is now training African giant hamster rats in Morogoro in Tanzania. Rats have an exceptionally good sense of smell. As their noses are so close to the ground, they are considered to be better than dogs in sniffing out landmines. Thanks to their light weight, they are unlikely to set off an explosion.

The rats are trained from an early age to sniff out explosive material. Since 2000 APOPO has trained the rodents on the campus of Tanzania's Sokoine University of Agriculture. In 2006 the first rats began searching for mines in Mozambique. Before the rats can start work in earnest, they have to pass a test and fulfill international standards for mine detection.

The rats learn to seach an area systematically. For this, they are attached to a kind of harness. Two trainers stand at either end of a pole and the rat works its way from one side to the other in straight lines. In the initial training phase, the rat first learns to sniff out pure TNT in a metal container.

Later on each rat will train in a field where genuine mines have been buried with deactivated detonators. If the rat detects TNT it gives a sign by scratching at the ground. Training a rat takes about a year and costs US$6,000 (4,670 euros).

During training rats are rewarded for success with a clicking sound and something to eat, such as a piece of banana. A fully trained rat can cover up to 400 square meters ( 4,300 square feet) a day. A human searcher would need two weeks for an area this size.

Compared to dogs, rats are less attached to individual trainers.. Even if they did most of their training with the same person, he or she does not always have to accompany the rat on to the minefield. The rats work equally efficiently, whoever is with them. It is no problem for the rats trained in Tanzania to be used in Mozambique, Angola, Thailand and Cambodia.

So far the team in Mozambique has searched more than 6,5 million square meters (70 million square feet) of land and has detected and destroyed 2,000 landmines, 1,000 unexploded bombs and more than 12,000 handguns and ammunition. There are currently seven units working with 54 mine detector rats.