A look at the role of giant rats in tracking wildlife smuggling, weapons of scent and curiosity

(CNN) The African Savannah Rat is a large rat that is about the size of a cat. Whether you think they’re cute or not, their sense of smell has been proven to be able to detect land mines, waste, and even survivors trapped under debris.

APOPO, a Tanzanian non-profit organization, is trying to use this sense of smell to combat the illegal wildlife trade.

Estimated to be worth $23 billion a year, the illegal wildlife trade is the fourth largest in the world, after counterfeit goods, drugs and human trafficking.

“Criminal organizations know there are weaknesses in their detection methods, especially in African ports and airports,” said Crawford Allan of the World Wildlife Fund (WWF), who is familiar with such meat trafficking. -legal.

Smugglers try to avoid X-ray inspection by, for example, dyeing ivory to look like wood, hiding it in agricultural packages or making it look like chocolate candy.

This is where the African Savanna rat’s strong sense of smell comes into play. According to an APOPO-led study published in an academic journal, lab-trained rats were able to extract ivory, rhinoceros horn, pangolin scales and African ebony. These are all wild animals and plants that are largely smuggled out of Africa.

Researchers hope rats can be used as supplements for wildlife smuggling detection dogs. The mice are “small and flexible” in the crowded shipping containers, said Jiří Szot, the researcher in charge of the project.

Unlike dogs, rats can work with many treatments, and because of their small size, they are much cheaper to train, raise and transport. This is extremely important, as wildlife from poor countries is often the target of illegal trade. Singapore and France are said to be interested in sniffer rats.

Last year, APOPO conducted a trial operation at the Port of Dar es Salaam, which handles 95% of Tanzania’s international trade. As a result, the rats were able to find more than 83% of the targets they placed in the packages, including objects that had been manipulated by standard methods to send their odors. hide When the rat finds a target, it alerts its handler by pulling on a small ball attached to a vest made of its paws, setting off an alarm.