Summary
You can’t eradicate landmines with rats. But…
Latent landmines exist as legacies of war all around the world, with people losing life and limb every single day. Deactivating these mines is both dangerous and expensive: and while each mine costs about $3 to create, they cost over $300 to deactivate.
So Bart Weetjens imagined a rat-ical (and affordable) solution.
As a child in Belgium, he raised rats and other small rodents as pets. He knew they were smart, and they loved repetitive tasks. But could they be trained to sniff out landmines, and light enough that they wouldn’t detonate them? It turns out, they can, and Apopo has employed these “hero rats” to clear hundreds of thousands of landmines, and save millions of lives, for a fraction of the cost.
So, you can.
Full Story
Dear rat, did you ever know that you're my hero?
NPR, Tommy Trenchard June 15, 2024
Daniel is on a mission. Somewhere in the rubble and debris that surround him inside this wrecked building in central Tanzania, a survivor is trapped. Daniel is determined to find him. He navigates the wreckage like a pro, just as he’s been taught during his long months of search-and-rescue training. Moving methodically from room to room, he peers into dark corners obscured by debris and scans behind what’s left of the furniture. The job isn’t easy, and for his lifesaving work, he’s paid peanuts. But that doesn’t bother him. Daniel is, after all, a rat. And peanuts just happen to be his favorite food.