From land mine detection to sniffing out illegally trafficked wildlife parts, a group of trained African giant pouched rats in Tanzania is proving a valuable partner for humans, Mongabay’s Lucia Torres reported in February.
In the 1990s, Belgian industrial engineer Bart Weetjens was exploring ways to detect land mines when he thought of rats: they’re cheap to get, have great smelling abilities, and are intelligent animals. Weetjens went on to establish APOPO, a nonprofit organization headquartered in Tanzania, that trains African giant pouched rats (Cricetomys ansorgei), one of the largest and longest-lived rat species. While domestic rats can typically live for two to four years, some of APOPO’s trained rats can live up to a decade.
Some of the earlier generations of the African giant pouched rats at APOPO had worked on Weetjens’s original goal of detecting land mines, while others were trained to sniff out tuberculosis.
A new generation is now being trained to detect wildlife parts.
APOPO’s trainers and scientists are teaching eight rats to identify frequently trafficked wildlife products, such as pangolin scales, rhino horns, elephant ivory and African blackwood (Dalbergia melanoxylon) in cargo shipments.
Not all rats in the facility are suitable for the job: trainers look for rats that bond with them and are eager to seek targets.
The selected giant rats are then trained to identify scents of wildlife items. When they’re able to do this well, they get a vest with a metal bell, which they pull on to make a sound when they find their target, Torres reports in a video. Trained like dogs, the giant rats are then given a reward for their success. “Usually a syringe filled with a mixture of avocado, banana and pellets,” Dora Hebert, a trainer at APOPO, told Torres.
Once the rats have picked up some training, they’re deployed to a facility filled with boxes, containers and a ventilation system, mimicking actual airports or ports that play a key role in wildlife trafficking.
Criminal gangs are getting “creative” with the way they’re illegally moving wildlife products, Mikala Lauridsen, program office director of the East Africa office of wildlife trade monitoring NGO TRAFFIC, told Torres.
While Lauridsen doesn’t like rats herself, she acknowledged that the APOPO trainees “are special rats.”
“It’s amazing what they’re able to do. Equip[ping] enforcement officers with the right tools and technology is one of the best solutions we have,” she said.
Within six years, the project has already seen significant progress, Torres reports, as early results show that the rats can detect the wildlife items in a controlled laboratory setting.
José Eduardo Reynoso Cruz, APOPO’s lead scientist for the wildlife detection project, said the rats are now nearing 90% accuracy in detecting wildlife products. Their goal is to go beyond 90% and to avoid false positives.
Read the full story here.
Watch the video here.
Banner image of Nandera, a crime-fighting African giant pouched rat. Image by Lucia Torres/Mongabay.
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