Gold medal for a ‘rat’ on successful landmine detection
Cambodia: A rat in Africa has been awarded a gold medal for successful landmine detection.
The rat, named Magawa, has been in Cambodia for some time, detecting explosives and has so far identified 39 landmines and 28 unexploded ordnance.
In recognition of this, the British Animal Welfare Organization (PDSA) awarded the animal a gold medal for identifying deadly landmines in Cambodia. In this regard, 30 animals will be awarded, the first medal of which is Magawa Komla.
The 7-year-old rat was trained by Apopo, a Belgian charity. Apopo experts work hard to enable rats to smell gunpowder. In this way, each rat becomes rare and can recognize a disease like TB, but it requires a year of training.
It should be noted that millions of landmines are still a major threat to human beings in Cambodia.
The rat was born and trained in Tanzania, but it weighs more than a kilogram, and that’s why it doesn’t explode even if it sits on landmines. They are trained by sniffing various explosives. In the presence of tunnels, they stop at it and start scratching its nails there.
Interestingly, it takes 20 minutes to find a landmine equivalent to a tennis ball, and a person can do it in one to four days. These mice are also called hero-rats.
