Giant Rats can Detect Land Mine in Africa

We all just knows that rat can ruin anything on our house and will evict them all from our house. Different with Niko Mushi from Tanzania's Mt. Kilimanjaro. He learned the rat nose for land mines detection. Mushi, 32, has been working with giant African pouched rats for almost seven years. He now enjoys their company. "They're just like my friend," he says -- but he concedes he was skeptical when the man who conceived the idea for Hero Rats first told him they could sniff out live ordnance.

The Belgian-born Weetjens, 43, is an apt candidate to change rats' unsavory image. A self-professed rodent lover, he was given his first hamster, Godly, for his ninth birthday.
"Fascinated as I was by it, I wanted to have a female hamster. Soon, I had a nest of hamsters," he said. "Mother didn't like that too much, so I took them to the pet shop and they gave me money for those hamsters."

Scientists were studying the use of gerbils in land mine detection, but they were using a system involving brain electrodes that Weetjens found unsustainable. He wanted a locally based solution that might empower communities.

The cost to train a rat is 6,000 euros ($7,700), roughly a third of what it costs to train a dog. Where dogs need expansive kennel facilities and regular veterinary care because of African climates, APOPO's kennel facilities at Sokoine University of Agriculture in Morogoro, Tanzania, can house up to 300 rats. The rats see a single vet once a week and are much easier to transport than dogs, Weetjens said.

Training begins with socialization when the rats are 4 weeks old because "it's really important they learn man are friends," Weetjens said.

It hasn't been easy convincing the international community that mine-sniffing rats are viable, but donors are coming around. A partners list once consisting solely of Antwerp University and the Belgian government now includes about 30 groups, including the U.N. Development Program, World Bank Development Marketplace and the Schwab Foundation for Social Entrepreneurship.