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The Military

After Years of Detecting Land Mines, A Heroic Rat Is Hanging Up His Sniffer (npr.org) 30

Posted by BeauHD from the well-deserved-retirement dept.
A heroic rat named Magawa is retiring from sniffing out dozens of land mines in Cambodia for the last five years. NPR reports: Magawa is a Tanzanian-born African giant pouched rat who was trained by APOPO to sniff out explosives. With careful training, he and his rat colleagues learn to identify land mines and alert their human handlers, so the mines can be safely removed. Even among his skilled cohorts working in Cambodia, Magawa is a standout sniffer: In four years he has helped to clear more than 2.4 million square feet of land. In the process, he has found 71 land mines and 38 items of unexploded ordnance. Last year, Magawa received one of Britain's highest animal honors.

Magawa is part of a cohort of rats bred by APOPO for this purpose. He was born in Tanzania in 2014, socialized and moved to Siem Reap, Cambodia, in 2016 to begin his bomb-sniffing career. APOPO uses positive reinforcement methods that give the rats food rewards for accomplishing tasks such as finding a target or walking across a surface. Then they're trained in scent discrimination: choosing explosive smells over something else to get a food reward. Though they have terrible eyesight, the rats are ideal for such work, with their extraordinary sense of smell and their size -- they are too light to trigger the mines. When they detect a mine, they lightly scratch atop it, signaling to their handler what they've found. Their reward: a banana. [T]he rats hone their skills in a training field and are only cleared to begin work once they have perfect accuracy over an 8,600-square-foot area with various stages of complexity.
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After Years of Detecting Land Mines, A Heroic Rat Is Hanging Up His Sniffer More

After Years of Detecting Land Mines, A Heroic Rat Is Hanging Up His Sniffer

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  • Hmm (Score:3)

    by Random361 ( 6742804 ) on Friday June 04, 2021 @09:49PM (#61456216)
    I smell a rat. Or is that a landmine?
  • We can't even almost build a machine that can pull that off. And there's so much talented life that could do stuff like this but it's got its own agenda and mostly can't be trained. That we've convinced any animals to do this kind of detect-and-identify is astonishing to me. So far beyond hunting dogs flushing out prey.

    • What amazes me (specifically in Siem Reap) is the approaches different organizations take to clearing mines and other UXO. You have one guy that started the original Land Mine Museum that used to do it with a screwdriver but now has to have all the “modern” equipment that slows him down a lot. You have APOPO with the rats, and you have the other organization (Danish?) that uses dogs. The rats seem to be the fastest, but there are some complexities with using them that limits their application

    • Re:Pretty darned amazing. (Score:5, Informative)

      by ShanghaiBill ( 739463 ) on Friday June 04, 2021 @10:50PM (#61456290)

      That we've convinced any animals to do this kind of detect-and-identify is astonishing to me.

      Nitrates have a distinctive smell. Sniff a block of TNT some time. So it isn't hard to train the rat. He sniffs for the smell, and then crouches while waiting for his banana slice. That is an easy positive feedback loop.

      So far beyond hunting dogs flushing out prey.

      Dogs don't work as well at detecting mines. They are heavier, so more likely to trigger a mine. They are more expensive to feed and train. They also bond to a specific human handler. The rats don't, so any handler can work with any rat.

      • [Dogs] are more expensive to feed and train. They also bond to a specific human handler. The rats don't, so any handler can work with any rat.

        Then there's politicians: heavier and more expensive to feed and maintain, but also not bonding to any specific handler: the highest bidder will do. And while they are terrible for sniffing out anything not increasing their own power and wealth, and hard to train, I still think they could be useful in a program like this. They have one huge advantage even over rats:

      • Dogs don't work as well at detecting mines. They are heavier, so more likely to trigger a mine. They are more expensive to feed and train. They also bond to a specific human handler. The rats don't, so any handler can work with any rat.

        Rats are also vegetarians which makes them more acceptable than dogs to some countries for religious or economic reasons.

    • Though they have terrible eyesight, the rats are ideal for such work, with their extraordinary sense of smell and their size -- they are too light to trigger the mines.

      I'm surprised they don't just breed lots of bigger rats to release and trigger all the mines. Would probably be more cost efficient.

      I'm glad they don't, but the humanity is surprising.

      • Though they have terrible eyesight, the rats are ideal for such work, with their extraordinary sense of smell and their size -- they are too light to trigger the mines.

        I'm surprised they don't just breed lots of bigger rats to release and trigger all the mines. Would probably be more cost efficient. I'm glad they don't, but the humanity is surprising.

        This will probably be moderated Troll, but it bears expression.

        If you're going to hunt land mines that some asshat planted, then you need a way to find them. That's the power of dogs. Or rats. Whatever. But mines? You don't know where they are. So here's the deal: You send a herd of elephants stampeding across the mine field. This has two benefits. First, you reveal and eliminate the mines. Second, you provide food for people in Cambodia. ...

        What could go wrong?

    • Twenty three billion square millimeters! Wow!
    • Kinder and more humane the aninals to just walk a crowd of ether Americans , Brits Bermans, Russians or French people back and forth through the area to be cleaned. No doubt one of them made and sold the damned mine.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by tlhIngan ( 30335 )

      We can't even almost build a machine that can pull that off. And there's so much talented life that could do stuff like this but it's got its own agenda and mostly can't be trained. That we've convinced any animals to do this kind of detect-and-identify is astonishing to me. So far beyond hunting dogs flushing out prey.

      Rats are good because your standard fancy rat is actually highly trainable (fancy rats are very unlike your stereotypical street rat and make great pets). They're also small and light and eve

  • They won't let him stay retired, mark my words (Score:5, Funny)

    by 93 Escort Wagon ( 326346 ) on Saturday June 05, 2021 @01:05AM (#61456448)

    I can see it clearly, almost like a movie script. One day, Magawa is sitting there relaxing... and the doorbell rings.

    Magawa: General Ratigan, how nice to see you in the 5000 block.

    Ratigan: Major Magawa, you have been selected for a mission of the utmost importance.

    Magawa: What mission?

    Ratigan: To save the world. You're to leave immediately for Angor Wat. Locate four unexploded mines. And bring their location back with the utmost discretion possible. Any questions'?

    Magawa: Just one... why me? I retired six months ago, remember?

    Ratigan: Three reasons...

    One - As a member of the elite APOPO unit, you are an expert in all odors needed for this mission.

    Two - Of all the members of your unit, you were the most highly decorated.

    Magawa: And the third one?

    Ratigan: Of all the members of your unit, you're the only one left alive...

  • Who sold them the landmines?

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by Anonymous Coward

      Land mines were used by all sides in Cambodia's decades-long war and conflict. In 1978, after the Vietnamese army drove the Khmer Rouge from power, they pushed the guerrillas over the frontier into neighboring Thailand. They then sealed the border with the vast K-5 barrier minefield. Despite the country returning to peace, land mines continue to reap a deadly harvest.

      There are many different kinds of bombs and mines: US material from the "Vietnam" war era, and Chinese, Soviet and eastern block made materials left from the Khmer Rouge era in the 1970s and a decade of civil war that followed in the 1980s.

  • It would be really bad if while these rats were doing this work a wild cat interrupted.

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