Detecting Danger: Africa's Giant Rats

Miss Marple has a remarkable nose for danger. She is a rat, and she detects land-mines by smelling them. She was born in the training lab of the Belgian company, Apopo, in Tanzania. Here African Giant Rats - the size of a cat - are taught to sniff out explosives hidden in the ground. After a year’s training she is sent on her first mission to neighbouring Mozambique, whose 30 years of war have left millions of mines hidden in the earth. A whole unit of rats walks delicately back and forth over the minefields, attached to lines. When they’ve finished, the fields are safe again. Hundreds of lives have been saved, thousands of crippling injuries avoided. Miss Marple is a true hero rat! Giant rats are clever and they learn fast. Their sense of smell is better than a dog’s, they have more stamina, and they’re a lot cheaper to train. Apopo’s founder Bert Weetjens makes use of their natural instincts. They are curious and always looking for food. They store whatever they find in their cheeks and bring it home. And because they constantly update the map in their brains, they never get lost. Perfect raw skills that can be honed to work with new scents. First, trainer Niko Saroni must get the new-born Miss Marple accustomed to him. then he gradually acquaints her with the smell of explosives - in the labs, and then with defused mines in the fields. Even a talented rat needs a year to master the skills. Finally, it’s off to the former war zones. Mines kill fifty people around the world every day. And there are a hundred million of them still to be found. 70 trainers and carers are employed at Apopo’s labs in Morogoro, Tanzania.