Service Rats

CNEWS has an interesting article about the upcoming use of rats in Colombia to sniff out landmines (available here: cnews.canoe.ca/CNEWS/Features/2011/11/23/19008356.html).

Landmine sniffing rat with his trainer.

It sounds similar to the HeroRATS (www.apopo.org/home.php) program that I wrote about a few weeks ago (at bentorats.blogspot.com/2011/09/herorats.html) but what I especially find interesting with the Colombian program is that they are using ordinary white rats.

The rats have a highly sensitive sense of smell which, combined with their light weight, makes them ideal for sniffing out landmines. They are also (of course) highly intelligent, making it easy for them to learn voice commands.

So far they have bred five generations of rats as the program has been fine tuned. It is believed that the upcoming generation will be trained to such a degree that they will be ready to go into the field. The Colombian government estimates that 31 of the country's 32 provinces contains landmines and people die because of them every year. If successful, the government's rat project could have a significant positive impact on the lives of Colombians.