Until recently, the African giant pouched rat, native to most of sub-Saharan Africa, was ubiquitously seen as either a pest or a source of food. Now, thanks to efforts from Belgian NGO Apopo, it has a newfound role: professional landmine detector. Its size and weight, together with an incredible sense of smell and intelligence, has made the rodent a perfect fit for sniffing out landmines in dangerous terrain, without any risk of injury. Thus, 11 million square metres of land have been cleared of 13,000 landmines in Mozambique alone, and the country is close to being declared landmine-free. A similar project is taking place in Angola, and the rats could soon be moved off to help in Cambodia.
Still, landmine clearing is not the only project the rats have proved invaluable in – their newest goal will be TB detecting. In clinical trials taking place in Tanzania, rats have detected more than 7,000 TB cases previously missed by humans, at a speed of 100 samples every 20 minutes.
