The sun has barely risen in Morogoro, but these employees always get straight to work. This is a trainee bomb detector, and she’s being taught to recognise the smell of explosives. She’s normally nocturnal, so her teachers wake up early to get the best out of her. And every morning, she and more than 50 other rats do drills over and over again.
So it’s a simple system. The rats are walked along lines until they think they’ve found a mine. Then they hear a clicking noise if they’re right – and then they get their rewards. And they’re not going to miss a chance to get a bigger breakfast. It takes nine months to get the rats ready for work in the field. Unlike dogs, they’re light enough that they can step on mines without setting them off. And so far, they’ve helped communities from Angola to Cambodia.
“It’s not good to have that problem of landmines, because people are suffering now. But when we met with them and when they saw us working with the rats, doing the mining, they were very happy, they were giving us big support, so we can finish off these problems.”Mark Shukuru, RAT Supervisor, APOPO
The charity that runs the project has now reached a deal with the Zimbabwean government to help locate thousands of mines laid during the country’s liberation war.
Across the border in Mozambique, the rats have been so successful that the charity believes the country could soon be declared ‘mine free’.
“We are there since 2008, we have cleared more than 13,000 landmines in total, and 8,000 on the Mozambique Zimbabwean border. So we hope now to continue once Mozambique is mine free, to continue on the Zimbabwean side of the border.” Christophe Cox, CEO, Apopo
And it’s not just bombs: the rats also can identify tuberculosis. They go through hundreds of samples a day, diagnosing far quicker than any machine could. Many people consider rats to be vermin. But in Morogoro they are not carrying disease – but finding it. And whether it’s in the lab or on the field, for these rats, saving lives is all in a day’s work.
