Rats To Detect Mines
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עברית (Hebrew)
For thousands of years man has been using animals for various needs – for food, for fighting, for company or more. Although a lot of us may be scared of them, it seems rats have come in particularly handy lately. Turns out rats are the most suitable animal for tracking mines. They have a highly developed sense of smell and can scan large areas, and most of all, rats are too small and light to trigger the mines.
These advantages led to Cambodia’s decision to use rats in missions to detect mines and unexploded ordnance buried in the ground after many years of war.
Apopo, a non-profit organization that works in Asia and Africa training rats, claims that rats can detect mines much better than detectors and other means. James Pursey, communications manager for Apopo, explains that the reason for this lies in the fact that rats ignore metal scraps such as old coins and bolts and sniff out only the main ingredients of the mines.
And what do the rats get out of the deal? They are trained using the click-and-reward technique. A clicking created by the rat offers them a reward- a banana or peanuts usually, which are their favorite treats. Very soon the rats come to realize that the clicking sound is associated with food and start looking for the required smell, in this case TNT, to receive a reward.
Later the rats are trained to receive rewards for more specific tasks, such as sniffing out holes, distinguishing TNT from C4 from other explosives and more. In order to signal their trainer that the task was accomplished, the rats are trained to scratch the ground’s surface.
No doubt that the nickname these rats received in Cambodia, HeroRat, is very suitable for the important job they do – saving people’s lives.
