Sangkae, ខេត្តព្រះវ, កម្ពុជា ការព្យាករណ៍​អាកាសធាតុ

Cambodian sapper rat retires

A rat named Magawa, awarded a gold medal for heroism, is retiring.

Over a five-year career, the rodent found 71 mines and 38 unexploded ordnance in Cambodia. The curators decided that it was time for him to retire.

Magawa was trained by the Belgian-registered charity Apopo, which has been based in Tanzania since the 1990s and has trained animals in landmine detection. Rats are trained to sense the presence of an explosive by smell, so they ignore ordinary scrap metal. Having found explosives, they begin to dig the ground, and then people are already involved in the work. Magawa is able to search a field the size of a tennis court in just 20 minutes - something that the organization says would take a person with a metal detector one to four days.